


Fools Rush In

by ellf



Series: Building Faith [3]
Category: The Dresden Files - All Media Types, The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: F/F, F/M, Ghouls, Magic, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-05 00:27:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 39
Words: 112,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12179430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellf/pseuds/ellf
Summary: Nearly two years after convincing Dresden to train them, Faith and Molly Carpenter find themselves in a sticky situation. Will their training help them when facing down the mob, faeries, and the undead? Who actually committed that murder? Will they make the smart decisions on how to do things? Only time will tell.





	1. Chapter 1

There were better things I could have been doing than standing out in the cold on a Friday evening in the middle of January. I could have been down at the card shop, polishing off the latest addition to my deck and getting ready for the Friday night tournament that either I or my sister would end up winning. I could have been down in the lab, brewing a potion or two, purely as practice, of course. Practice I felt that I sorely needed sometimes. I could also have been at home, spending some time with Mom and the jawas, maybe even watching some TV. Unfortunately, I had to be standing outside this apartment building just before sunset because the person inside wouldn’t come to answer the door.

At least I wasn’t out here alone.

Molly knocked on the door again, before turning to me and Drew. “I don’t think anyone’s home.”

“That can’t be right,” I said. “We were told that Mr. Maroni should have been home.”

“And,” Drew added. “That Lexus in the parking lot looked like the one that you described.”

Drew was a decently tall young man, about a two and a half years older than myself and Molly. Sure, some people might find it strange that two identical blonde girls were out with a boy of Drew’s… complexion, but fuck them. Drew stood about a shade under six and a half feet tall, and he had broad muscular shoulders that had thickened in the past year and ten months. Tonight he wore a leather jacket over a black tactical turtleneck and blue jeans. He wore a pair of leather gloves to keep himself warm.

“Quiet down for a sec, I’m going to try something,” I said, and I leaned forward, placing my ear on the door. I blocked out everything for a second and Listened.

I might have mentioned it before, but Listening isn’t really any sort of magic. It’s just really a concentration exercise in paying attention to what your senses are telling you. You block out all the unnecessary noise and focus on what you’re specifically trying to listen to. You know you’ve done it right when the sounds of the world fall away and all you can hear is what specifically is in your target area. In this case, my target area was beyond this door.

Through the door, I heard the tell-tale hum of electricity running through various appliances. Refrigerator, television, washer, drier… Maroni must have had some decent equipment. What I didn’t hear was any breathing, no animal movement, no conversations. I heard nothing going on beyond the door other than what sounded like a leaky faucet.

Stopping my listening, I turned back to my sister. Like me, she had her blonde hair cut at her shoulders. She wore a black headband that held her hair back today, and she had on some light make-up that even Mom would approve of, even if she really didn’t want us wearing make-up right now. For this outing, she wore a fur-lined coat with a hood, along with pants and some snow boots, nearly matching my own outfit. I, on the other hand, had my hair tied back in a braid today, and while my outfit was similar to Molly’s, I had some slight differences, including my gloves.

“Sounds like nobody’s home.” I tried the doorknob lightly, and it turned. I gave a slight push and the door opened, but no alarm went off. “Well, isn’t that interesting?”

“Maybe he stepped out?” Molly asked.

“Maybe.” I held out a hand, and I frowned. “Molly, feel that?”

Molly held out her hand and frowned, nodding. _No Threshold._

“Guy must not really live here, or if he does, he must not consider it home,” I said.

“How can you tell?” Drew asked.

“Threshold,” I said.

“There isn’t one,” Molly continued.

“But that doesn’t mean what we’re after isn’t here. The source is usually pretty good,” I said.

Molly nodded. “So do we?”

I peered into the darkened apartment. I wasn’t entirely sure where to look there, but I was pretty certain I could narrow it down if I needed to.

“You two wait in the car,” I said. “I’ll go in and see if it’s in there. If it is, I’ll get rid of it, and we can go, otherwise, I’ll be out in ten minutes, twenty tops.”

“Fai, I really should be going in with you.”

“Moll, I need you out with Drew so you can relay messages.”

“Then I should be going in and you can be the Drew relay.”

“Moll…” I glanced inside. _I think I should do it. Please, Molly._

Molly blew out a sigh. _Fine. If you don’t come out in fifteen minutes, I’m coming in to get you._

“Okay, now that that’s settled,” I said, smiling.

“Fai, I don’t think you should go in alone,” Drew said. “But if Molly’s fine with it, I’ll play getaway driver.”

“Thanks, Drew.” I smiled at my friend. He’d… adjusted… over the past year and a half. It hadn’t been easy, I was certain, but he’d managed to come through. Maybe it was due to his forcible induction into the Venatori as well, or perhaps just his inability to rationalize away what he saw. Ivy had a chance to erase his memories of events completely, but he chose to keep them and that choice was respected.

My sister and friend went off to the parking lot, and I turned toward the empty apartment with no threshold. The item in question was a small book that was sold as a part of a lot of occult-related books. It was small, nondescript, supposedly with a red cover, and in theory it could do what Cecelia nearly managed to do if it got into the wrong hands.

I stepped into the apartment, and I shut the door behind me. I reached up to my neck and undid the clasp of my necklace, holding up the pentacle my mentor had given me. Next to it on the chain was my crucifix, something I refused to give up even with magic. An effort of will allowed me to channel some power into both, lighting each up to make it easier to see. Better than flashlights.

The apartment was a mess. Pizza boxes were strewn about the floor, along with empty two-liter bottles. I wrinkled my nose as a bit of the apartment’s _smell_ hit me. Gah, it was like something died in here. Sweat, bodily fluids of all sorts, rotting vegetables, mold, I really didn’t want to think about what could be causing the smell, and what must have been the bathroom didn’t smell much better as I passed by it. Thankful for my gloves, I resisted the urge to pick everything up and start putting it away as I slowly made my way through the apartment. I was thankful that I didn’t see any needles among the detritus that lined the floor so he wasn’t an addict, but God, this guy was a worse slob than I’d ever been in my past life.

Reaching out with my senses, I tried to see if anything twigged me as magical or close enough. Harry’d turned an Easter Egg hunt into a teaching experience last year, where each egg had been lightly enchanted with a different enchantment, and we were to not only find each one but identify what the candy inside was going to be by the enchantment upon it. If we got it right, we got to eat the candy. If we got it wrong, the candy got put in a pile for the jawas.

Mom wasn’t exactly happy with that lesson. Hope and Amanda get really hyper if you give them too much chocolate, and Harry tended to go for the peanut butter. Thank God my youngest brother doesn’t have any sort of peanut allergy. Danny, Mattie and Allie had more than enough candy as well. They’re just old enough that they can act normally with it.

There was something... a little faint… wait… Ah-ha. There! Felt like…. Okay, more like it tasted like a… Oh, that was nasty. It was here alright, and whatever it was, I wanted to get rid of it. I walked through, around what must have been a nice leather sofa once, and to a desk which had a box on it. The feeling wasn’t coming from within the box, though I did give a glance inside. The box had some books, but none that matched the description of what I was after. No, what I was after was in the wall… behind a… was that a poster of a… Okay, that was a signed poster of “Lara Romany.”

At least Maroni had some taste. Lara was tastefully nude on this poster, and he was using it to hide… what? I lightly pulled at the framed poster, because of course it was framed, and behind the poster was an electronic safe. Really now? Electronic safe, keypad and everything. Visible blinking light on it too.

“Oh, Maroni, just what are you hiding here?” I held out my right hand, and the runes around the circle I’d sewn into my glove lit up. I gathered up my will and balled up a small amount of energy. I didn’t really want to do too much, but I couldn’t do too little either. See magic and technology? It doesn’t like to mix. Using magic around most relatively complex electronics can cause them to fail. Something something public perception, something… I kinda tuned Harry out when he effectively told me I couldn’t use a computer anymore, but he did teach us something about weaponizing the effect. Just taking a batch of raw magic and unleashing it in all of its techbane glory. Harry’s incantation for this was _hexus_ , but that reminded me too much of _Fern Gully_ and Tim Curry for my liking so I used a bit of a different incantation. “ _Entropga_ …”

What can I say? Once a gamer, always a gamer. I unleashed my little ball of techbane entropy into the safe, and the screen scrambled. After a few seconds, the safe popped open, and then the screen powered off completely. Sitting within the safe were two books, a stack of bills, and two bricks of… Wow, Maroni was into some serious shit. One of the books in the safe was the one I needed, but the other looked interesting. I’d take it out and look at it after I dealt with the book at hand.

This one shouldn’t have had any sort of magical protection, I was told. So all I needed to do was just destroy it by whatever means I had available. I was a wizard-in-training, I had some serious means available to me.

 _Fai, how’s it coming in there?_ Molly interrupted my train of thought for a second. _Things are getting a little weird out here._

 _Found the book. Getting ready to destroy it._ I sent back, and I laid the book flat on my right hand. What I was about to do was nowhere near as efficient as what Ivy’d done to that one book, but it should have been able to be handled.

 _Well, hurry up and get finished. You might want to..._ Molly faded out. That meant that something caught her attention over in the car with Drew. Multitasking was still a thing we were working on for the distance version of our speech, but if she was busy, I didn’t want to distract her.

Glancing down, I saw that Maroni had a metal wastebasket near the desk. Perfect. I dumped the trash out on the already trashy floor and prepared myself. My glove’s runes started glowing red as I went through my mental mnemonic for the spell I was about to cast. “ _Ignicus_.”

A fireball formed above my hand, exactly where the top of the book was, and I tossed both it and the book into the metal trashcan, where my fireball ignited the book with a small boom. I hadn’t put too much power behind that as I didn’t want to actually blow anything up. After verifying that yes, the book was burning, I went over to the safe to look at the other book.

 _Die Lied der Erlking_ was the title of the second book within the safe, which roughly translated to “The Song of the Erlking.” Of course, it was terrible German, and it probably should have been something like “Das Lieds der Erlkonig” or the “Songs of the Erlking.” I wasn’t even sure if that would have been correct either, but either way, I couldn’t just leave this book here either. What I could do, however, is leave a small stack of cash on the desk, which is what I would have paid for the book if Maroni had actually been here.

I started to make my way out of the apartment, when I heard a thump from within what I thought had been the bathroom on the way in. I made my way through the living room to the door, still holding my pentacle and crucifix high, and I pulled it open. Well. That explained why nobody was home and why I heard nobody breathing. It even explained the leaky faucet sound.

Propped up against the cabinet under the sink was what had been a young Italian-American man. He’d looked sort of thuggish with slicked-back hair that you’d expect on a member of the mob. He’d been wearing khaki slacks and what probably had been a white dress shirt and maybe a black tie. I couldn’t really tell with the blood running down his front.

 _Molly, get Drew to call the police_. I sent to my sister. This wasn’t something that I wanted to get involved with at all if I could help it.

 _Fai, that’s what I wanted to—_ I heard a door further into the apartment burst open, loudly. Before I could even tell what was happening, two uniformed officers in SWAT body armor and holding assault rifles with flashlights attached stepped into the living room, their lights reflecting off the bathroom mirror into my eyes. Once they saw me, they immediately pointed their guns at me.

“Freeze! Hands on your head, and down on the ground!” I quickly pondered just running, but I wasn’t sure I could get my spell off before they fired the gun. I complied with their request instantly, letting my pentacle fade as their flashlights shone on me.

I heard the front door slam open as someone kicked it in. “Clear!”

One of the officers came over to me with some handcuffs. _Moll, we might have a bit of a problem._

As he clicked the handcuffs onto my wrist, the officer said, “You’re under arrest.”

He then started to read me my rights. Oh, what a day. What a lovely day.

 


	2. Chapter Two

The ride downtown to the station was a mostly silent affair. I hadn’t said a word to the cops yet, and Molly hadn’t been responding to my attempts to talk to her. I wasn’t entirely certain why I had actually been arrested rather than just asked to come downtown, but given the situation I was found in, it was entirely possible that they thought I did it. Why they hadn’t made me remove my gloves yet was beyond me, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. When we managed to get down to the station, rather than booking me right away, they brought me into an interrogation room, cuffed me to the table, and then the cops left.

One thing TV gets accurate is the bog-standard interrogation room. I sat in a room that was enclosed on all four sides, save for a door, and what looked like a mirror. There was a lone metal table that I knew I couldn’t lift—though there certainly were supernatural creatures that could—and there sat two chairs with uncomfortable metal seats. One was empty, of course, since they’d left me in here alone, but the other was where I sat, with my cuffs looped through the middle of the table. My eyes flicked to the upper-right corner, in my view, of the room. Sure enough, a camera sat there with its red light on, indicating it was recording. Now, I could have been a jerk and just caused it to break down intentionally, but I doubted it would last as long as I sat in this room.

I hated being away from Molly this long, especially when the last words I was certain got through were one hell of an understatement. What made me nervous was the possibility of being put into a jail cell. I knew I wouldn’t get any sleep tonight if that happened; not because I’d be worried about something happening, but I wouldn’t be near my sister. It’s very hard to sleep without her nearby. I breathed out a sigh, and I looked to the camera. Still recording, or at least it looked that way. Whenever the cops finally came in here, I needed to ask for my attorney. The problem was, I wasn’t sure whether Lara had made the Raith attorneys available to us, or if I had to call Father Forthill. Forthill would defend me, sure, or at least recommend someone who could, but the price to that would be Mom and Daddy finding out about the arrest. That certainly wasn’t something I really wanted to have happen, but it was definitely a possibility.

Whenever they let me use the phone, assuming they actually did, I’d probably give Thomas a call and then phone Father Forthill depending on how the talk with Thomas went. Then, I’d probably call home and let them know the basics of what had happened, leaving out the Venatori stuff. I went to buy a book, found the door unlocked, found a dead body, and then got arrested when SWAT came in. Depending on what they wanted to charge me for, I could end up having Mom mad at me or mad at the cops. I’d say about a fifty-fifty shot there, and that was more than I liked. So, last resort that.

Damn. I’d been in here at least half an hour by now. Either the cops were backed up or they really wanted to make me sweat before they came in to talk to me. Either way, it wasn’t exactly a tactic I wanted to give in to. Closing my eyes, I began an exercise that Harry taught me for centering myself.

Meditation wasn’t exactly something I tended to do often, but it helped pass the time and occasionally had other uses. For example, Molly and I found that when we meditated, whether it was one of us or both of us, we were able to reach out a bit easier. A silent room made it easier to focus, and while I had no clue exactly how far away Molly was at that moment, I had a vague sense of where my sister was.

_Molly, can you hear me?_ I probed in that direction, giving my words shape and form with my will.

_Bad…tion… are... jail?_ Success! Well, sorta. It wasn’t perfect, but Molly was there, thank God.

_Molly, meditate. Meditate and focus, or get Drew to drive closer._ I really had no clue how much Molly was hearing here; the situation certainly was more unusual than we’d dealt with before. I wished Molly was here, but—

_Fai! Where are you?_ Now that one came in clearly indeed. God, it was good to hear her.

_Police station. Some kind of interrogation room._ I opened my eyes and sighed again, still empty. I was starting to get thirsty. _Nobody’s done anything with me yet, and they left my gloves on._

_I’ll talk with Thomas. Sit tight, sis, you’ll be out of there soon._ Molly sounded like she had a plan. Good, God knows the only plans that I could think of at the moment were probably terrible.

_Bring food and drink if you come. I don’t know how long they’ll have me in here._ I closed my eyes and sent an image of what I’d seen to her.

In return, she sent something truly comforting down our link, brushing my hair back. _It’ll be okay, Fai. You’ll see._

I sent back some feelings of gratefulness before I felt the link fade. Molly must have needed to do something that took more of her concentration, which admittedly was fine. I could just go over some things in my head.

Why the heck did that book twig me so much? Well, the Oblivion War related book was obvious, even if I had no clue what it was I burned there. Still, the other book, _Die Lied der Erlking_ , just bothered me for some reason. It definitely wasn’t the terrible German on the cover. While I knew some German, high school classes, I didn’t know enough German to really care about terrible translations enough for me to be bothered by it that much. The book’s title tickled the back of my mind. Wait, did it say that it was by a Wizard Peabody?

Wasn’t that the wizard that the Venatori Umbrorum person had wanted to contact at the White Council a couple years ago? So, he wrote a book. Big deal. That didn’t explain why the book bothered me so much. I’d have to think on it some more later. Then there was the body. I assumed it was Maroni, as it was his place, but what if it had been someone that Maroni had killed? There hadn’t been a Threshold there, which meant that nobody left saw it as a home, and it hadn’t been warded against anything. Still, given the contents of the safe, it was entirely possible that Maroni had just been killed for the drugs. But why leave them in there?

Who or what had killed that man? Why had there been a SWAT team within seconds of me seeing the body?

The door opened behind me, and without opening my eyes, I said, “I’ll be perfectly willing to cooperate, as soon as I have an attorney present.”

“Well, it’s a good thing that I’m not the police then, Miss Carpenter,” a masculine voice said as I heard him walk into the room, accompanied by two more people. One of them was wearing small heels, maybe barely an inch, and the other was wearing dress shoes, like the speaker, but he walked heavier. I opened my eyes. “I do believe that you will wish to speak to my associates and I.”

The speaker, whom I saw in the mirror, had shortly cut salt-and-pepper hair, and he had the kinds of age lines that come from sun and smiling etched into his face, similar to how Daddy had when I’d seen him shaved one time. The man’s eyes were green, but not bright, the kind of green you saw on well-worn dollar bills. He wasn’t bad looking, had a good tan, and he was definitely athletic. God, I knew who he was, probably from the moment he opened his mouth, though I’d never met the man, and he knew me. His companions, a tall muscular blonde woman who was definitely taller than me was the one who wore the heels to go with her business dress. Flanking the speaker on the other side was a red-headed man who looked built like an NFL linebacker.

“Mister Marcone,” I greeted politely. I couldn’t let them see me sweat. Harry drove home this lesson to Molly and I. Always look like you know what you’re doing, even when you don’t at all, maybe even especially if you don’t at all. “Miss Gard, Mister Hendricks. I suppose if you came all this way to see me, how can I refuse?”

Gentleman Johnny Marcone moved into the room and sat opposite me in the chair, his two retainers stood on either side of the table. I glanced up and saw the camera sparking. Whoops.

“Now then, Miss Carpenter,” Marcone said, smiling. “I believe we should have a little chat about Antonio Maroni.”

***************************

“Gentleman” Johnny Marcone was a name that I recognized from both lives. The man had ousted the Vargassi crime family, had created a new criminal empire in their wake, and he wanted more. This was the man who would eventually take the title of Freeholding Baron in the Unseelie Accords so that he could better protect what he considered to be his. This was a man who wanted to be the mortal shield against the supernatural for Chicago, and I couldn’t help but respect him for that. Additionally, the man had principles. No drugs to children, no breaking of his word when given, and when the chips were down, he could be counted on to do what was best for the world in his view. If it just so happened to turn him a profit in the process, so be it.

Still, I couldn’t mistake that honor for a lack of danger. The man sitting in front of me was one of the most dangerous men in the city. He scared my boss, for crying out loud, and anyone that scares Harry Dresden is someone that _I_ should be treating with a very light touch. He sat there, unassuming, and there wasn’t anything that indicated how he was feeling save for the smile on his face which didn’t reach his eyes. I specifically avoided looking Marcone in the eyes for two reasons. I didn’t want him to see my soul, and I especially didn’t want to see _his_. I knew enough about the man already and I knew how I wanted to deal with him. I also rather suspected that he knew enough about _me_. Clearly he knew who I was already, and I bet he knew, at the least, that Harry was teaching my sister and I magic.

To the left of me was Marcone’s right-hand man, Mr. Hendricks. Unlike Marcone, he had less of a leash on his emotions, and he was… conflicted? The man’s stance and look promised violence, like the stereotypical attack dog on a leash, but when I looked at him, I didn’t quite get that. He was anxious, perhaps a bit reluctant to even be here. Maybe he felt something alternative to violence was necessary. I had no doubts that if Marcone ordered him to, or if there was a threat to Marcone, Hendricks would act upon those orders without hesitation, but from what I was seeing, I didn’t think he’d actually enjoy doing it. Something to file away, I guess. I’d need to find out what his first name was. It probably wasn’t “Cujo.”

On the right was Sigrun Gard. I knew I wasn’t supposed to know the first name, and I wasn’t sure that even Harry knew it yet, but the Valkyrie cum bodyguard that worked for Monoc Securities was far more than she seemed at first glance. (Shut up. Keep your mind out of the gutter. Pervert.) She had the tightest hold on her emotions in this room. Nothing in her stance betrayed anything other than a vague promise to do what is necessary to protect her client. Gard was Marcone’s supernatural muscle, and he used her well.

And I identified that I knew who each of them was upon their entrance. Maybe I could pass that off as Harry describing people that I might run into one day as his apprentice. I mean, he did mention Marcone a couple times, and something about “Cujo” and a tall leggy… Okay, I needed to focus. Geeze, broken up with Becca for three months, and already my eye was roving. Must not have been true love there.

Marcone wasn’t saying anything. He just sat there smiling, waiting for me to acknowledge his previous statements, and I bet he noticed me giving a once-over of his… let’s call them retainers. Minions doesn’t quite work for the criminal mastermind. After all, Johnny Marcone was not a supervillain.

“What do you want to know, Mr. Marcone?” I asked. Harry probably would have said something rude and annoying here, but he could get away with it. I wasn’t confident that I could, and it was better to be polite to him anyway.

“Everything, Miss Carpenter, but I’ll settle for your version of what happened. You were found within Antonio Maroni’s home, standing near his corpse. Please, explain to me what happened.” Marcone gestured with his hand to the one-way mirror. “There are no police listening in on this conversation. So you do not have to worry about incriminating yourself.”

I glanced to the mirror, and I closed my eyes for a second. There was a way I could check beyond the mirror for someone but it wasn’t exactly a pleasant action. I breathed out a sigh and opened my eyes again. I’d trust that Marcone was telling the truth in this. The police probably weren’t out there for the same reason that Marcone had come in. Money. Still, the question was whether I should just keep quiet after all. I couldn’t tell Marcone the specifics about the real reason I went to his man’s place, nor could I tell him about the Venatori in any fashion. Marcone didn’t need to know, and I feared what might happen if he were to find out about the Oblivion War. I was pretty sure that Marcone’s continued existence was a net positive on Chicago, but I would never tell Harry that. I despised the man’s methods, but I couldn’t argue with the results…. Right.

“Okay,” I said, my decision made. “I’ll tell you, Mr. Marcone. I went over to Mr. Maroni’s place to acquire a book that I’d heard he obtained for research purposes. The door had been unlocked, I found after knocking and there was no answer. I went in and looked around partially out of curiosity, and I really wanted that book.”

“And the safe?” Marcone asked.

“Curiosity, again, and a bit of hope the book I was looking for was in there. It wasn’t, but a book that was in there interested me. Something about the Erlking.”

Gard stiffened. So, she could show another emotion besides stoic, and there was a flash of… well, it wasn’t quite fear… maybe anticipation? Whatever it was, she got ahold of her emotions quickly and went back into the background again. I wondered why mentioning the Erlking would cause the Valkyrie to become eager. Did she maybe want to fight him for some reason?

“So, you took that book, then.” Marcone’s tone wasn’t accusatory, just matter of fact. I wished I knew what ran through his head at that moment, but soulgazing him was not an acceptable option. I knew enough about the man.

“I left some money. I’d always intended on paying Mr. Maroni,” I said, defending myself. “But I left the rest of everything in the safe alone. I don’t even want to know what those two bricks of white powder were.”

Marcone nodded. “So, how did you come across the body?”

“I heard a thumping noise from within the bathroom on my way out, and I went to check it. There he was,” I said. I had no clue how Marcone was feeling at the moment. The man’s feelings stayed hidden somehow. Perhaps Gard trained him on it, or perhaps he just naturally concealed himself. “Then the cops showed up and now I’m here.”

Marcone looked to Gard, who nodded. “She seems to be mostly telling the truth. She’s not the one responsible, sir.”

So, he’d used Gard as a lie detector then? I didn’t know that she had that capability. Maybe it came as a part of the package deal of being a Chooser of the Slain, or maybe it was something she developed during her lifetime back in… wherever she came from before she became a Valkyrie. I doubted she’d be able to tell if Loki were lying though, but that god’s mantle was lies anyway. I shook my head.

“Of course I’m not responsible. I only found the body… and I didn’t touch it or disturb the crime scene once I knew it was a crime scene,” I said, looking down at the cuffs.

Marcone nodded and placed a hand on one of my gloved ones. I got a flash of… well, that was almost fatherly concern, not quite what I expected from someone like Marcone. Anger was there too. Someone had murdered one of his own, and he wanted to find that person and make them pay. It was entirely likely they’d pay in blood. The feelings faded, and I still steadfastly refused to lock eyes with the man, even for a second. I’d caught a minor break in Marcone’s nearly airtight emotional defenses, and that surprised me, even more with what he had been feeling. Maybe that was the reason that Marcone had a rule against children.

“I believe you. I sincerely doubt there will be any evidence to tie you to the death of Maroni, nor will you be charged for your trespassing as you were simply a concerned citizen. Plus, the way your arrest was handled, Miss Carpenter, was atrocious,” Marcone smiled. “I rather suspect that your mentor will be brought in by the police to assist with this case once it inevitably ends up with Special Investigations.”

“Wait, Harry’s not actually in town right now… why would it end up in Special Investigations?” From what I remembered, SI usually dealt with the spooky side of criminal investigation, sanitizing their reports for the layman. Harry occasionally worked cases for them, but he had yet to actually bring Molly and I in on one. He probably just didn’t want us getting hurt.

“Antonio Maroni’s method of death was definitely a murder, but they will not find a murder weapon,” Marcone said.

I was about to ask why not, but then the screaming started.

  



	3. Chapter Three

Screaming. In a police station. Now normally that wasn’t exactly an uncommon thing. You’d have criminals, the dumb ones at least, yelling at their arresting officers, you’d have officers yelling at criminals to either keep quiet or to try and get some information out of them, but this was different. This kind of scream was accompanied with a wave of raw terror. Terror that I could feel even in the interrogation room. Terror that even Mr. Hendricks, Marcone’s entirely normal trigger-puller could feel. I felt it rolling in waves off of him, though he managed to stay stoic. I assumed Marcone and Gard were getting hit as well, but they were bastions of quiet amidst the terror that was even affecting me. My body’s fight or flight instincts were kicking in, heartbeat increasing, sweat palpitations… I could feel my muscles tensing.

“Hell’s Bells,” I cursed. “It’s a compulsion.”

Marcone looked to me, and again I looked away from the man’s eyes. He nodded. “Miss Gard, if you please.”

Gard reached into her pocket and pulled out a single stone tile. As she laid it on her hand, I felt her gather power to it, and with an utterance of some word that sounded vaguely Scandinavian, the Terror compulsion stopped… to a point. “Within a fifteen-foot radius, Mister Marcone. I would suggest we leave.”

Hendricks nodded in agreement with the blonde. “We don’t know what’s out there, sir.”

“Then I suppose I shall have to entrust my defense to the two of you.” Marcone reached into his pocket and fished out some keys. Placing a hand on my wrist, he unlocked one and then the other cuff before standing. I rubbed my wrists as he said, “Miss Carpenter, we shall have to continue our conversation another time. I would suggest that you tread lightly if you decide to become involved in this case. You are not your mentor, after all.”

I bowed my head slightly, and I nodded. “Of course, Mister Marcone. Thank you.”

Marcone smiled. “Stay safe, Miss Carpenter and keep your sister safe as well.”

Gard opened the door, ushering Hendricks and Marcone out, and I stood, this time mentally preparing myself for the compulsion. Once the trio were out of the interrogation room, I felt the compulsion return, but I was ready. Harry had taught Molly and I how to fight off emotional attacks, similar to how he had managed to fight off the one within the Wal-Mart, but it took some effort. Pulling my crucifix and pentacle out of my blouse, I focused on the crucifix. Silvered light ran down the chain and emitted from it, around Jesus’ crucified body, and I smiled. My faith would preserve me here.

Now, I needed to see what the source of the screaming was. I stepped out of the interrogation room into a hall. I saw some uniformed officers running in a direction, guns drawn. I couldn’t really make out their features as they passed, but I followed them anyway. I needed to see what the source of this was to know if I could help stop it or not. What would be attacking the police station and why? To cause a terror compulsion… The cops were handling it better than I’d have thought, but… I heard gunshots. They were trying to shoot whatever it was…. And it wasn’t all that far from here.

I stepped around a corner to find myself in the bullpen of the station to find chaos. The officers in the bullpen seemed torn between running out the door and kicking over chairs and desks to hide behind as they fired at… Oh God. Claws. Teeth. Long sharp claws that could extend and stretch through an officer’s chest. Long muzzle, sharp teeth, better to tell lies and tear flesh. The all too unpleasant smell of rotting meat and fresh blood, the former gotten from God knows where, and the officers bleeding out on the ground in front of me. The cops kept up a continuous amount of gunfire, but the bullets seemed to miss their targets as they dodged at inhuman speeds. There were five of them, slashing and tearing into police, the ones who dared to get close, anyway, and they were faster than the cops could aim. The fur on their hunched-over bodies stood up straight and their jaws gaped open unnaturally wide as they continued their rampage.

Ghouls. Why did it have to be ghouls?

A new wave of terror shot through me that had nothing to do with the compulsion. Ghouls. I swallowed hard. Five of them. Five ghouls. Attacking the police station. Ghouls. Getting shot at by cops. Tearing into cops, eating flesh, eating a bullet but still… Oh God, why did it have to be ghouls? The police. They could handle this, right? They didn’t need me… they didn’t need a young wizard’s apprentice to do anything here, did they? Normally… Normally, that’d be the case. But… oh God, ghouls. The police were shaking in their boots and missing shots that they should have hit. Why were they mis—oh. Oh. Fuck. That’s why.

The compulsion. If not for the compulsion a room full of trained police officers should have been able to handle five ghouls easily. Sure, some of them still would have died, but Oh God, that one just cut into a cop’s belly as the cop shot it in the chest. Okay. Four ghouls now, because of one brave woman who just died to… Fuck, more were going to die if I didn’t find the source of this compulsion.

I wasn’t Harry. Harry’d go in blasting rod ready and just beat the ghouls to shit and back. I… I couldn’t, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t give the cops a fair fighting chance. If I could find the source of the terror compulsion, if I could stop the compulsion, it wouldn’t take much work from the cops that were there to stop the ghouls. I just… Fuck. I needed to do this. I couldn’t risk opening myself up to the compulsion itself if I were to try to find the source the way I found the book. So I had no choice. There was only one way that I could seek it out. Wizard’s Sight.

Wizard’s Sight… how to describe it… It’s a sort of sixth sense that wizards are able to acquire. It’s described as “spirit vision,” the “third eye,” “inner-sight,” or just plainly, the Sight. It’s something that allows a wizard, or a wizard’s apprentice, to see the supernatural side of the world. Another way of looking at it is that it lets the wizard take a glimpse at the world through the eyes of God, to see things and people as God would. I’m not entirely sold on that particular explanation, even if it was how Daddy said it. There is one caveat to the Sight. Whatever is Seen cannot be Unseen. You never forget what you see with your Sight, good or bad.

In this particular instance, I was pretty sure I was about to give myself some new nightmare fuel. I opened my Sight. Instantly I was inundated with how the station looked. The world became sharper, sounds became clearer, and the cops… they varied. Some were strong, avenging angels, others were sickly slimy people who wore the uniform to cover some deficiency they had. Others still were just people, there to do the right thing or the wrong thing as time would tell, and then there were the ghouls. I’d thought that they looked terrible in their natural forms, but what I saw under the Sight was so much worse: furred, mutated monstrosities with teeth and limbs far too large for their bodies, tipped with scythed claws that would rend flesh, splinter bone, and shear souls. Maws that gaped and dripped with blood and rotting viscera. These beings were built to feed, to slash, to… There. A tendril of spell that led further into the station. That had to be where the terror compulsion came from, and the tendril acted like a broadcast antenna of sorts.

I crept around the edge of the bullpen, avoiding the ghouls and ducking gunfire as I followed the line. No need to draw attention to myself if I could avoid it. I needed to give those cops a way to fight this thing. The line went through a door into the room, and I smiled. There was something I could do here. This would have worked better if Molly were here with me, but I could do this without her. I stepped through the door, and raising my left hand toward the door and placing my right in the direction of where the compulsion was coming from per my Sight, I focused energy. The silvered circles on both gloves lit up as I focused, drawing the spell in my mind. This was a quick and dirty version, but both Molly and I had done something similar before.

“ _Inverimoga._ ” I unleashed the energy, filling the spellform with its shape. A ward against fear, a shield against the darkness popped into place on the bullpen’s door, blocking the way of the compulsion. If it had in any way been omnidirectional, this wouldn’t work. If it had come from within the bullpen, this wouldn’t work, but it was coming from somewhere beyond this hallway, and I was going to find the source. In the meantime, the cops could deal with the fucking ghouls. I trusted their aim when they weren’t scared out of their minds.

I stepped carefully down the hall, still with my Sight open, feeling sort of queasy, and I struggled to keep my balance in the real world as I witnessed the supernatural. This was the longest I’d held my Sight open yet, but it was necessary. My ward wouldn’t hold forever, and even though the gunfire had turned less erratic and more focused in the bullpen, the moment my ward failed, they’d panic again. There. That way. I turned down the hall, following the blackened spell ribbon toward its source.

The door was clearly labeled “Evidence Locker,” and the officer… the officer who was supposed to be guarding it, she had her throat slit. God, I could… was that her ghost?

“Excuse me, miss, you aren’t authorized to go in there,” the ghost of the officer said.

“Did anyone else go in there?” I asked. Obviously someone did, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

“They… they were dressed as cleaning crew. But then they…” The ghost paused. “Oh, God... it burns look away, look away…”

I blinked and looked away from the ghost. “Officer, go seek out Mortimer Lindquist. He’ll be able to help you out… get you ready to move on.”

She shivered, and nodded. “Lindquist… right…”

Ghosts. I placed my hand on the door handle. I didn’t know what was coming, what was beyond this door. Clearly it was something with the ability to cast such a compulsion, but the question was why? With my Sight open, I didn’t dare to Listen. The Sight was more than visual; if I allowed myself to Listen, I could open myself to far more than what I’d seen already, and I needed to track the spell’s source. Closing the Sight wasn’t an option, but neither was just barging in the door. I wasn’t Harry. I may not have Listened, but I placed my ear against the door, and I let myself hear beyond.

I heard shoes on tile through the door, maybe two or three people. They weren’t wearing boots or any sort of heavy or heeled shoe, but it definitely wasn’t bare feet moving in there. I heard scraping and rustling, as if boxes were being moved, and items were being shuffled. So, whatever the goal was, it was in the Evidence Locker. The ghouls in the bullpen were the distraction, combined with the terror compulsion, all so whoever was inside there could steal something from the cops? What was it they wanted? More importantly, why did they want it now?

Steeling myself, I slowly opened the door. It hadn’t sounded like whatever was in the Locker was right by the door, so I wasn’t going to be too loud. Harry probably would have burst in and demanded that whoever was there surrender. Or he’d annoy them. I couldn’t do that. I’d go quiet. Slipping inside, I carefully shut the door behind me and looked for the compulsion’s source. The ribbons were thicker in here, and they all streamed from the same location, down an aisle, and around a corner.

Quietly, I followed them, creeping around a corner, and then what I saw made me wish that I hadn’t held my Sight open. Three more ghouls stood in the Locker, one pulling at the boxes while the other two kept watch, but these were different than the ones in the bullpen. They were bigger, uglier, had more scars in their flesh, more decayed meat dripping from their maws. Their claws were soaked in blood, and their teeth were long-yellowed. Their eyes held an intelligence to them that the ghouls in the bullpen hadn’t had, and each was dressed in a janitor’s uniform. One of which held a glowing skull. Another… had the book that had been confiscated from me in its arms, _Die Lied der Erlking_.

Ghouls. Of course it fucking had to be more ghouls.

  



	4. Chapter Four

They hadn’t seen me yet. Thank God for small favors, they hadn’t seen me yet. But I Saw them. I Saw every aspect of their forms. What did I remember about ghouls? Other than witnessing one disguised as a policewoman skewer… gah. No, I shouldn’t have thought of that. Focus, Faith. Ghouls. Fifty pounds of meat per day is what they needed to survive. They weren’t _smart_ , but they weren’t really all that stupid either. Older ghouls tended to have far more cunning. They were more dangerous than fighting a tiger in melee, so the usual answer to that was to have some sort of ranged way of dealing with them. God, I shouldn’t have been staring at them with my Sight. Now I would never get this image of them out of my mind, but at least they weren’t… There were worse things to look at.

I slowly, quietly, let out a breath, and I forced my Sight closed. It didn’t want to close. It wanted to stay open, but I knew that I couldn’t keep it open forever. I’d kept it open far too long already. I glanced at the ghouls again. Humans. Janitorial staff. They’d been in disguise. The glowing skull that had been the source of the compulsion? It didn’t glow, and it looked like a crystal ball of some sort, held in the crook of the ghoul’s arm. They’d chosen probably the blandest looking humans to disguise themselves as: dark-haired white men that happened to be a bit on the thicker-set side.

That book. God, what was it with me and finding books that the supernatural critters wanted? Something told me that I didn’t want unknown ghouls with an unknown agenda making off with that book. The book really didn’t seem all that special to me, but something about it just tickled at my memory. So I had two primary goals here. The first was the destruction of the terror compulsion’s focus. Ghouls didn’t tend to be practitioners, so they must have just been using it as a tool, likely provided by an actual caster. God, my heartbeat must have been ridiculously high right then. The second goal was to secure _Die Lied der Erlking_ and prevent the ghouls from leaving with it at whatever cost I could afford. Of course, the primary goal was to survive the encounter. Fuck ghouls.

I was tempted to close my eyes for a second to help me focus and get my breathing under control, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off the ghoul trio as they continued to ransack the shelves they were near. I silently prayed for the courage to face them, and I—

“Hey, what’s that light?” one of the ghouls asked, sounding all too human. Fuck. I looked down at my crucifix. Double fuck. I forgot to… I was still providing willpower to it. I released the will, and the silver light faded, but it was too late. They’d seen it, and if they knew someone was definitely here, they’d find me quickly. Guess it was time to try to imitate my boss.

“You know, if you’re going to steal from a police station, you might want to try, y’know, not looking like thieves?” I had no idea where that one even came from, as I stepped out into the aisle, in a loose stance. I knew I couldn’t afford to get too close to them, given what they were, and Harry’s usual method of dealing with nasties wasn’t exactly one I wanted to do in a police station. “I mean, stealing from an evidence locker, isn’t that a little cliché?”

The ghouls all locked eyes on me now. Great. I really had no clue how I was going to pull this off, and… fuck. I really wanted to run, hide and bury my head under my pillow. Ghouls. When I next saw Molly I was going to give her the biggest hug…

“Shouldn’t you be running and screaming, little girl?” the center ghoul asked, glancing down at the crystal in his partner’s hand. “Just running and hiding…”

God, I really did want to do just that, but I couldn’t let that hold me back. I held my right hand behind my back as I focused my will. “Oh, you mean like the police out there. How did you accomplish that, I wonder?”

“She’s not running,” observed the one holding the book. “Maybe we should give her a reason to.”

“Or maybe, we shouldn’t let her run,” said the orb holder, with a slight British accent. “I’m feeling a bit peckish.”

_Lord_ , I prayed. _Please help me to be brave enough to do what I must._ They still looked human, though I knew they could discard that disguise whenever they felt like. I needed to get the orb and the book. There was one way I could think of for certain. I just needed to time it right.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said, continuing to gather my will through both my gloves. I was afraid, but emotions fuel magic. I’d let my fear fuel this spell. The runes on both gloves began to light up, in a slightly different pattern than before. “There’s not really much reason to run away.”

The orb holder snarled, and he started his reversion to his natural form. “We’ll give one to—”

“Ah,” I interrupted, still channeling Harry somewhat. “I wasn’t finished yet. Running _to_ you is an option. _Soukotte!_ ”

I spread the fingers of each hand wide and, using the balled up wad of terror I felt of these ghouls, unleashed the spell. The world around me slowed significantly. Well, to be perfectly fair, the world didn’t _actually_ slow. I sped up my perception of time instead, and allowed myself to act within this sped up perception. It wasn’t quite superspeed that I had, but it came close.

I ran toward the transforming ghoul, and I looked at his grip on the orb. Perfect. The timing was perfect. I could reach through where he held it and push the orb out of his arm without ever touching his skin. Exactly what I needed. The orb popped out backward, moving at my speed so long as I touched it, but the moment I let it go, it hung there in the air. Spinning around the ghoul, careful not to touch, I snatched the orb out of the air and tossed it as hard as I could at the ground, pushing a burst of will in it to have it use my actual speed as its momentum. The crystal orb moved at what appeared to be a normal speed to me, but when it struck the ground, cracks began to spider-web their way through the edges of the sphere.

I started to dart away from the ghoul when a grin formed on its face. Let me repeat that. The world had slowed down. The ghouls had slowed down. The ghoul was _grinning_ now, and he wasn’t when I’d cast the spell. The ghoul’s still human hands lashed out and grabbed my right arm.

“Oh, crap.” I said, and he pulled, sending me off my feet and he let go, letting me fly toward one of the shelves, at speed. I reached out with my left hand and focused, projecting a shield as best as I could.

It wasn’t the best of shields, kind of spongy, but it slowed my momentum down enough when it struck the shelf that I was able to right myself. I grabbed the shelf and swung around to land on the ground just as the spell ended and the orb shattered.

“ _Wizard_ ,” the former orb-bearer said as fur jutted up and down its misshapen arms. Claws extended out of its hands, reminding me all too much of what I’d seen in the bullpen, and what I’d seen when I was younger. “I will dine on your flesh and suck the marrow of your bones.”

The other two ghouls started their own transformations, and I suppressed a shudder. Rule number one. Never let them see you sweat.

“Oh really, Muttley?” I flexed my right hand. Fire would be bad here. This was a police station. Electricity started sparking between each of my fingers. Luckily, I had other options. Assuming I could work up the nerve to use them. “You really think that you’ll survive this one?”

The ghoul just roared, a roar echoed by his two partners, and I… remembered… it had roared too… _Oh god, that poor policeman. Hurt because of me. Hurt because of what I…_ I froze. I just… No. I couldn’t let this happen again. I wasn’t going to let it happen again. I sidestepped the oncoming ghoul, and I clasped my two hands together, then spread them apart.

“ _Fulminara!_ ” A ball of raw lightning formed between my hands and I drew from it, striking out at the ghouls. First strike, former orb bearer, singing fur. Second strike, central ghoul, caught in the snout. Third strike, book-holder, struck in the shoulder, electricity arcing up and down that limb, causing it to spasm and the book to fall. I raised my left hand and curled it into a fist. “ _Sfukaze!”_

Green energy wrapped around the book and I pulled, sliding the book along the ground and through the air toward me. The ghouls turned around, galloping onto all fours in their bestial forms, and I jumped up to hold onto a shelf. I caught the flying book, and then swung up onto the next shelf over, resisting the urge to call out something stupid.

“Wizard!” the ghoul called. “You cannot run!”

“Who’s running, Muttley?” God, it was easier to think of it like that, and the ghouls started climbing the shelving to get up to me. Fuck. I couldn’t let them get too… oh, these shelves were made of metal. I resisted the urge to laugh like a crazy woman. “ _Fulmina_!”

I unleashed a single charge of lightning into the shelf as I jumped off of it into the aisle. Thank God for gymnastics training, even if I was too fucking tall for it. I rolled to my feet just in time to watch the ghouls fall off the shelf.

“We’ll finish this another time, wizard,” one of the ghouls said, as it pulled itself to its feet. It looked to the other two ghouls. “Let’s go!”

“No! Not without it!” said Muttley the ghoul. Fucking ghouls. “We’re not going back empty-handed!”

“It’s time,” said the third. “With or without you, we’re leaving.”

“Don’t all leave on my account,” I said. What the fuck was I saying? I’d accomplished my two goals, did I really want to try and kill them too?

“We’ll settle this, later…” the first ghoul said.

“No, I settle this now!” Muttley ran at me, and I’ll admit I ran away, still holding tight to the book. I did not, however, scream like a little girl. Very much. Okay, so I did, but I used it to cover what I was doing with my right hand.

Lightning arced on my right hand, more and more. Blue arcs of lightning passed between each finger, ran up and down my hand, and the sound of the sparks sounded almost like birds chirping. Faster and faster, the lightning arced, until the chirping became louder than I could scream. I’d only done this once before, as a joke when messing around with lightning. Molly called me a dork then for what it was, but it really did sound like one thousand birds chirping all at once.

I stopped before the door, spinning in a ballerina’s twirl. “Hey, Muttley! Want to know what happens to a ghoul when it gets struck by lightning?”

The ghoul got closer, seeming to ignore my wit. I have no clue how I managed to outrun it, but maybe it wasn’t really trying that hard. I definitely wasn’t all that fast when not using my kinetomancy spell.

Close enough. “The same thing that happens to everything else! _Fulminaga!_ ”

I thrust my hand out toward the ghoul and a horizontal bolt of lightning, nearly a foot in diameter, arced from my hand and through the ghoul, stopping it in place, only grounding itself when it struck the shelves behind it. Muttley collapsed forward, its momentum causing it to slide toward me, head first. I stepped back a few feet, letting it come to a complete stop, and I bent over, clutching the book to my chest.

I breathed in and out, trying to catch my breath. God, that was… It took a lot out of me. How the hell did Harry manage to do this sort of thing? Slinging that much magic in a combat setting… it was hard, damnit. While I thought I could maybe do a little more, what I wanted to do right now was go home, curl up next to my sister and sleep for three days. I’d settle for six hours, but holy shit, that was... I shook my head. At least I accomplished my goals. Terror compulsion down, book secure, and ghouls defea—

Muttley clamored to his feet and started to lunge at me, but then a woman’s voice shouted, “Get down!”

I dove backward onto my back away from Muttley’s charge as I heard them: six gunshots. With the first, Muttley looked uncomfortable. The second and third, had him bleeding. The fourth and fifth had more blood, pouring out his ears. The sixth caused his skull to fracture outward toward his ten o’clock, and Muttley fell over dead, revealing a short blonde woman behind the ghoul, dressed in a leather jacket and wielding a police-issue 9mm. I didn’t know much about guns, but I knew that the woman in front of me did.

“Lieutenant Murphy,” I greeted her with a smile as I got to my feet.

“Faith Carpenter,” Murphy said. “Why are you here?”

  



	5. Chapter 5

Detective Lieutenant Karrin Murphy, Chicago PD, led the section of the force known only as Special Investigations. From what I remembered, and what Harry had told Molly and I, SI was a punishment assignment, usually given to those the force wanted to wash out. The previous person to lead SI had lasted less than a year. Murphy had been there for six. The way Harry likes to tell it, the reason she’s been so successful has been because she had the foresight to hire the world’s only wizard private detective as a consultant. He likes to think that he’s building himself up when he says it that way. While my mentor is awesome, I’d prefer to think that Harry isn’t the only reason that Lieutenant Murphy had succeeded at her position. She also had to be competent.

She realized I was me and not my sister, after all.

She’d also asked why I was here. The real question was: how should I answer? What was she referring to? Here, as in the police station? Here, as in the evidence locker? Here, as in not in the interrogation room where I was placed when Marcone showed up? I immediately ruled out the smart-ass answer of “Why is anyone here?” since I was pretty sure that Murphy wouldn’t appreciate that out of me. I wasn’t my boss, after all. I looked over the lieutenant. Her blonde hair was disheveled, sweat and what looked like a bit of blood trickled down her brow, but she wasn’t breathing all that hard. She was _short_ , and I mean... she was shorter than Becca had been, but she seemed to have more of a presence. The look on her face as she looked me over was one of concern, echoed through what I felt from her. I wasn’t supposed to be in here, but I was, and she needed to know why.

“I was… finding the source of the compulsion,” I answered, finally. “It was a crystal ball that one of the—” I swallowed. “—ghouls had been carrying. Caused terror to go throughout the building.”

Murphy nodded. “Made it hard to deal with the ones in the bullpen, even with the tricks Harry taught us.”

“Is everyone...?”

“Everyone in SI is fine, Faith, but there were some casualties.” Murphy closed her eyes, and I could feel some sadness radiate off of her. I almost wanted to hug the Lieutenant and let her know that I’d be there if she needed it, but I doubted she wanted that from me. “But that only answers part of my question. Why are you here, in this station? Harry’s not here with you, is he?”

“Nothing’s on fire, is it?” I asked rhetorically before I could stop myself, prompting a snort from Murphy. “I was…” I sighed. Guess there was no real choice in the matter here. Lying to Murphy would end poorly. I just couldn’t tell her the exact reason I was in that house. I didn’t want her to be forced to join the Venatori. “I was arrested tonight. I’m not sure what they were going to charge me with. They left me in an interrogation room for close to an hour, though. Is that… is that usual?”

Mirth turned to darkening anger, but it wasn’t directed at me. “Yes. You’re what, sixteen, Faith?” I nodded. “Yes, that’s very unusual. As is _arresting_ you without actually charging you. Did they even book you?”

“Uh….” I trailed off as Murphy’s anger increased.

“So, you were in an interrogation room for an hour and a half without anyone coming in. You were detained without knowledge of what you were being detained for. You were told that you were arrested, yes?”

“Yes. Then they read me my rights… I think they did, anyway.”

Murphy let out a growl. “Okay, let’s get up to my office, and I’ll check to see if you’re even in the system.”

“Umm… Lieutenant?” I waved my hand as a spark jolted between my two fingers.

“Ah… right. You’ll have to wait outside of my office for a little bit while I check.”

“Can’t I just go home… or to Harry’s?” I had to ask.

“If you’re not in the system at all, I’ll take you there myself. I do need to ask where you were arrested though.” Murphy started leading the way out of the evidence room. I glanced at the dead ghoul and shuddered before following the Lieutenant.

“I was at Antonio Maroni’s place,” I said as we walked around the corner, avoiding looking at the EMTs who were going toward the dead woman. Thank God that I couldn’t see spirits that weren’t manifested without my Sight open. I didn’t want to deal with a ghost. “I’d been there to buy a book off of him, and the door was open. I found his body. I was going to call the police but they showed up when I saw it… and arrested me. They didn’t say why.”

Another flare of anger, followed by worry and a bit of sympathy. Obviously I didn’t do it, and didn’t Marcone say that the case was going to be handed over to SI?

Murphy led me up three flights of stairs to the fourth floor. We walked halfway down a hallway before reaching double doors with the words “Special Investigations” emblazoned on them in an almost mocking manner. Opening the doors, Murphy stalked past rows of desks and cubicle walls to an office in the back of the room with cheap walls and a cheap door that had a metallic nameplate with her name and title on it.

“You wait here, Faith.” She gestured to a chair placed outside the door. “I’ll let you know when you can come in.”

The offices were empty as I looked around. “Where is everyone?”

“Helping with the cleanup downstairs or over at Maroni’s house.” Murphy opened the door to her office and stepped inside, leaving it open. I sat down.

“So, SI did get the case…” I muttered. I looked down at the book in my hands and pursed my lips. I knew how dangerous some books could be, but something with this bad of German on its cover, written by someone with the last name Peabody? What could be the harm in reading this? What could be worth attacking a police station over within this book? “What are you?”

Another burst of frustration, followed by confusion came from within Murphy’s office. I could imagine what was going on with her computer, and I pouted slightly. I hadn’t been able to use a computer since that day a couple years ago when the entire lab caught fire. I didn’t dare to try, but I missed it. The Internet was only going to get faster. Murphy’s confusion faded into… huh. Dawning realization was certainly a unique feeling.

Lieutenant Murphy came out of her office a few seconds later. “Right. I’ll take you by Harry’s. I need to talk to him anyway.”

“That… might be a problem,” I admitted. “Harry’s not in town at the moment. He gave Molly and I some things we’re supposed to be practicing at his place, but he’s out of town for the next week.”

Murphy frowned. “Guess I’ll have to talk with Jared about it, then. Come on, Faith.”

I nodded, following her into the elevator this time. This looked safer than the elevator in Harry’s office building, and we were going down anyway. We stayed silent on the elevator, and Murphy led me out of the building, heading for the car pool. Apparently at this time of year, Murphy drove a little white sedan. I climbed into the passenger seat, and the detective started up the car.

“So…” I started after we’d been driving for a little while.

“They never booked you. Never had a warrant for you. They never even mentioned you to a judge. Someone’s head is rolling for this, if it’s found out, but from the way shit rolls downhill at the precinct, I’d much rather just work the case,” Murphy said. “So, I’m going to treat you as a witness, Faith, not a suspect. I know your father, and I know your teacher. There’s no chance you did this.”

I nodded. “So, why did the case end up with SI? Shouldn’t it be with Homicide or Vice?”

Murphy snorted. “You’d think that. The shape the body was in made this an SI case.”

“He was covered in blood,” I said. “A slit throat?”

“Not really at liberty to discuss it, and I’m waiting on an autopsy report anyway,” Murphy said. “If Harry were in town, I’d probably want to consult with him, especially after the ghouls showed up at the station. Do you have any way he can be contacted?”

I shook my head. “He said something about… a gnoll infestation. At least I think that’s what he said. All I know is he’s somewhere around the Ozarks and going to be incommunicado for a week.”

“Damn,” Murphy said, as she pulled up to the curb in front of Harry’s apartment building.

I closed my eyes for a second, breathing out a sigh. Opening them, I looked toward Murphy. “Maybe Molly and I can help somehow. Thomas might be able to pitch in some of his expertise as well. We’d be cheaper than Harry too.”

Murphy snorted, and I could feel both amusement and apprehension coming off of her. “Maybe if you two weren’t minors and had a PI license, I could justify it.” She looked toward me. “But I don’t want either of you near this case.”

“But…” I started. “What if you ne—”

“Nowhere near,” Murphy locked eyes with me, “this case, Faith. Is that understood?”

I should have looked away, I should have answered her and looked at her lips, as I did so, but as I thought about it, the soulgaze began. Her blue pools, almost a mirror to my own drew me in, and I fell forward, into them.

Chicago’s skyline stood in the background, and standing before me, in front of the skyline was Karrin Murphy. The long feathered wings of an avenging archangel pushed out of the diminutive detective’s back, framing her body with holy light. Murphy was a protector of the innocent, a punisher of the guilty, and she had the faith to get her through her duties, which is why at her waist, I saw the cane-sheathe of _Fidelacchius._ Each feather of her wings displayed how she obtained her purpose, what she gave up, what she drew inspiration from. The death of her father, also a policeman, framed her desires, perhaps to prove herself worthy of his legacy, perhaps to prove herself better than he was. To show that she wouldn’t break the way he did. To show that he’d need to protect the way he couldn’t. Her mother and her sister, despite loving them both, she couldn’t understand why they didn’t see. She knew that they wanted what they thought was best for her, but they didn’t know what lurked beneath. I saw her first encounter with Harry, as she shot a troll and rescued another girl named Faith from a grisly fate.

I saw her standing against Harry, with Harry, for Harry. I saw her walking into Hell and back alongside myself, Molly, Thomas, my father, and others, for the sake of Harry Dresden. I saw the love she felt, for Harry, for the city, for her family, for herself, and I saw her need to protect it, to be its shield. She may have been a vanilla mortal, but she was in no way helpless, nor would she remain that way even if she were. She was someone who peered into the Darkness and stood against it, a beacon of Light pushing its way through. The Darkness couldn’t taint her purity, not unless she chose to let it.

And as the soulgaze broke, I was reminded: someday she would. I sat there, silent, looking at Lieutenant Murphy, not daring to be the first one to talk.

“What… what was that?” Murphy broke the silence as she looked at me.

“That… was what we call a soulgaze,” I said. “We looked into each other, and we saw who the other person truly was.”

Murphy looked me over for a second, and then she did something that surprised me. She wrapped me into a hug. “You poor thing. I’m… so, so sorry, Faith…”

I returned the hug, a bit awkwardly. Just what the hell did _she_ see, exactly? Did she see the fact that I remembered a past life? Was it something else? I looked down at the blonde detective as she hugged me for a little longer.

On second thought, I really didn’t want to know.

  



	6. Chapter 6

After Lieutenant Murphy finally let go of me, she made some excuse about needing to go to the morgue, and she left me in front of Harry’s place. She also had told me to have Harry call SI if he managed to get in touch with us. Maroni must not have died in a natural or normal unnatural way, given that the case was hers. I knew that Murphy told me to stay away from the case, but… if Harry wasn’t back in time to help her, maybe it would be possible for us to do something. Harry’d mentioned a particular Medical Examiner tended to work Special Investigations cases at the morgue and the one he’d mentioned sounded a lot like Polka Man. I couldn’t, for the life of me, remember Polka Man’s real name, but I’d called him that in my head since I first saw him at the comics and game shop at seven… Okay, Molly and I both called him that. There were probably more unflattering things we could have called the man, given his scrawniness, wild black hair and glasses, but the one thing that always stuck out was the fact that whenever his car drove up, you could hear polka blasting from its speakers. The man would _hum_ polka as he walked through the store and picked up his weekly comic supply.

He went to HVB on Saturdays. I’d have to make sure I was there, ready to ask him some questions about what happened to Maroni. I thought I’d seen him wearing a City Morgue ID badge before, but I wasn’t completely sure. He’d stopped coming to the shop for a few months a few years back, but he’d started right back up again at the end of that hiatus. Every week, in and out like clockwork.

I shook my head and looked at the stairs down to Harry’s place. We’d been lucky enough that there hadn’t been any major snows the past couple weeks, so Harry’s apartment’s walk remained shoveled. I stopped about three feet from the entrance and reached out with my left hand. Yep, there they were, a light hum against my senses, like electricity traveling through a live wire. Harry’d rigged his place with wards that were of the nastiest sort. Anyone trying to break into his apartment would get one hell of a jolt, and if they were supernatural, that hell of a jolt would be so much more. Luckily, I knew how to disable his wards; it had been one of the first things that Harry taught us. I just needed to apply power in this sort of pattern and… There! Disabled for now, indicating that someone was actually home.

Harry lived in the basement of his apartment building, in a basement apartment. I opened the door to the apartment, and the moment the door opened, I felt the slamming of a small head into the back of my calf. I looked down to see the thirty-pound bundle of feline imperiousness that was Harry’s cat, Mister. The grey-furred bobtailed tom slunk against my leg before slipping inside the apartment, and batting at something beyond the door. I heard a sliding sound of fur on stone as I stepped inside the dark apartment.

“Mister,” I scolded. “Don’t hit the puppy.”

Mister, as was his right, looked imperiously away from me and stalked across the living room toward the area where Harry’s bedroom was. It was still too dark to see in here, so I used a little bit more of my energy.

“ _Flickum Bicus_ ,” I waved my right hand and flames lit a number of candles that looked like they’d recently been replaced. Harry’s apartment wasn’t really all that big. His kitchen is more or less an alcove with a sink and a fridge. His furniture is an eclectic combination of secondhand chic, comfortable to sit in, but definitely not matching. His floor is smooth grey stone, but a good portion of it is covered with throw rugs so as to not offend the sensibilities of bare feet this time of year. Bookshelves line the walls, for the most part, and where they don’t, he hangs tapestries, except for the one corner where Harry put a Star Wars movie poster, you know one of the original ones that had Leia clinging to Luke’s leg. Back before they were brother and sister.

Near one of the couches was a suitcase with a pile of neatly folded clothing stacked next to it. Thomas had been living with Harry for the past few months, ever since he and his father had a nearly lethal disagreement. He’d finally told Harry about their relationship, and Harry claimed to have been overjoyed at the revelation. Finally, Harry had some family to spend time with after spending so much of his life as an only child. Harry’d been hurt that week too, had his left hand nearly burned off by a vampire of the Black Court. He covered it with a glove, but we knew it’d hurt him.

I glanced down at the best thing to come out of that adventure that Harry and Thomas had managed to have while Molly and I were on vacation with the family as he shrugged himself out from under a rug. A grin came to my face, and I bemoaned the lack of ability to record this moment so I could share it with someone. Mouse was so cute as he came over to me, nuzzling at my leg. He’d grown a bit since Harry’d gotten him, and I had no doubt that he’d grow bigger than the fifteen to twenty pounds he already was.

“Hey there Mouse.” I knelt down on one knee and removed the glove from my left hand so I could scratch his ears. “I guess Thomas went out. Did he at least walk you before doing so?”

Mouse chuffed, and the feeling that came off of him seemed to almost be an affirmative.

“Well, that’s good. Molly’s not back yet though,” I said, and I moved over to the couch. Mouse followed me and when I sat down, he hopped up and placed his head in my lap. I glanced to the fireplace, and I grimaced. Lighting candles and blowing things up were one thing, but lighting a fireplace required a bit more fire movement than I had energy for. Damn. I’d have to leave it as I contacted my sister. “So Mouse, Mister giving you much trouble?”

Mouse looked past me to something on the edge of the couch, and I looked over. Mister apparently wanted pets too as he slammed into my shoulder before hopping down onto my lap, intentionally placing his butt in Mouse’s face. Cats. As cute as they can be sometimes, other times they’re just assholes. Still, I reached up with my right hand, and, after carefully moving Mister away from Mouse, I started petting behind his ears too. Once he started purring, I felt fine to make my contact.

_Hey Moll…_ I sent out to my sister. _I’m back at Harry’s._

_Fai, what happened?_ Molly’s ‘voice’ tinged with worry and relief simultaneously. _There’s so many ambulances around the police station. Are you okay?_

_Moll, please don’t tell me you and Thomas were going to try and break me out of the station._ God, that would have been a shitstorm, even without the ghouls.

_Okay, I won’t tell you._ Wait. No. She really couldn’t be…

_Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter_ , I sent, putting appropriate emphasis on each name. _You better not have_.

_Geeze, sis. How is it you manage to sound like Mom through this?_ Molly teased. _Drew and I spoke to Thomas, and he said he’d try to get something worked out with his sister to get you free. But then something happened at the station, but it was over before Drew and I could try and help._

_Ghouls,_ I sent. Now I was the one sending emotion through. _God, they were… Just… please come back here, Moll. I’m going to do some work in the lab… I just… I need to take my mind off of what happened._

_Okay, Fai._ Molly sent a comforting feeling along with that. _We’ll be there soon. Don’t blow up the lab without me._

I snorted. _I’ll try. But if that skull tries to get me to flash him again…_

I felt Molly’s laughter well up at that as her presence faded away. She must have been relaying to Drew what I wanted, and… Hmm, I guess they were probably going to bring some food back. That’d be good. I stretched and scratched the ears of the two animals on me.

“Okay guys, I’ve got some studying to do,” I said, mostly to Mouse. Mister probably didn’t care what I had to say, but he’d accept me stopping my petting for now. Of course, as soon as I spoke, the cat bounded off after some speck of something. Maybe he was chasing a pixie of some sort or something. Harry did tend to have some interesting beings that hung around his apartment. How else could it have been this clean when it was as dirty as it was when we left earlier? Of course, Harry would never give away his secret.

I made my way to a throw-rug that had obviously been moved many a time before, and I moved it, revealing the trapdoor-style hatch that opened into Harry’s basement’s basement, better known as a subbasement. I grabbed one of the candle holders with lit candles, placing the copy of _Die Lied der Erlking_ under my arm, and I pulled the hatch open. Carefully I climbed down into the room below, where Harry’s lab was located. Calling it a lab is perhaps a bit generous, as it is little more than a concrete box in the ground with a ladder leading up and out of it. The walls are lined with white wire shelving, the cheap kind that you usually see coming from Wal-Mart. The shelves have so many containers of different kinds from microwave-safe containers, wooden boxes, plastic dinnerware, plastic zipper bags, and there’s even a sealed lead box on one of the shelves. I asked Harry what was in that box once, and he mentioned depleted uranium and ghosts, which had me questioning just how he’d managed to get that. He’d told me not to worry, that he hadn’t messed with any Libyans. I’m not sure if that made me worry more or less. The rest of the shelves contain books, notebooks, envelopes, paper bags, pencils, and many other random objects that fight for space on them. Molly and I had managed to clear some space for our stuff, but Harry still took up the bulk of everything. The only shelf that remains uncluttered is a lone plain, obviously homemade wooden shelf, which currently held only candles at either end, three bodice-ripper romance novels, what looked like the Victoria’s Secret Christmas catalog, and a bleached white human skull.

A couple tables take up the center of the room, leaving an area on the other side of them clear of any other clutter. Inlaid in the floor over there was a brass ring, Harry’s summoning circle, which unfortunately wouldn’t be conducive to… Never mind. Molly and I each had our own workspaces, on what had once been an extremely cluttered work table, and we each had our own projects that we were working on. A glance at Molly’s showed that she was working on a new wand of some sort, possibly to help her focus her capabilities a bit more to compliment the one she had already. My project, however, was something a little odder.

Sitting in the middle of my workspace was a small chisel, a mallet, and a solid single crystal of clear quartz. Next to it I had some jeweler’s wire, a soldering iron, a roll of copper wire, and a small spool of gold-lined thread. The bottom of the quartz crystal had the designs I’d been trying for before we got interrupted by Venatori business, but I still needed to finish the project tonight anyway. Besides, working on this would help get my mind off both the case and the… ghouls. I laid the book down on the table nearby.

I eyed the skull. I needed a little bit of guidance, a little bit of help. “Bob, would you please wake up?”

Orange lights formed in the skull’s eye sockets, and it turned to me, giving an exaggerated yawn. “Well, you’re politer than Harry is when he asks for help, I’ll give you that.” The skull spoke with an English accent, and it seemed to grin at me. “But would it kill you to wear something a little more revealing? A V-neck, perhaps? Maybe some stockings and a really short skirt?”

Bob wasn’t really a skull. He was a spirit of intellect that resided within the arcane protections that the skull provided. From what Harry told us when he introduced the spirit to us, Bob knew far more about magic than most people would ever learn in their lifetimes. From what I remembered about Bob in my past life, he was someone we really didn’t want falling into the wrong hands if it could be avoided. Bob was _special_ in that if you controlled the skull, he had to follow you. He also adapted to what you thought he should be, which meant that Bob as he was now was somehow related to what Harry thought he should be when he got him. Teenage boys are perverts, I swear.

“Bob, I’m not going to strip down for you,” I said.

“Not for _me_ , Faith or Molly, probably Faith,” Bob said. “For _Harry_. I’ve seen the way you and your sister look at him, and you two nubile young apprentices are just what he needs to get out of his funk since Susan!”

“Don’t you dare tell Molly that, Bob,” I said, ignoring his comments about Harry. He couldn’t lie, but he could be mistaken. I sighed. “I need a bit of help. I’m not sure I’m doing this right.”

Bob looked me over. “Doing what right, exactly?”

I picked up the crystal, running my hand down the designs on the bottom so that Bob could see them. “I’m trying to make this. I’d seen it in Harry’s notes before, but I want to make sure I’m doing it right.”

“Hmm, yes, it looks like you’re getting close there. You might want to adjust the line third from the right by your pinky though. It should be a little thicker for this. A shadow capture crystal, right?” Bob looked at me.

“Yes, it seemed like something interesting to make,” I said.

“No, that’s not it, Faith. Why would you want to make a shadow capture crystal? You want to use it. For what?”

I pursed my lips. On the one hand, if I told Bob what I was planning, he’d probably tell Harry unless I got him to promise not to. On the other hand, if I didn’t tell Bob, there was the chance I wouldn’t get the help I needed to make sure the crystal worked right. Damned if I did and damned if I didn’t.

“I’m going to use it in a summoning,” I said. “As one of the five for my target.”

“What are you planning on summoning?” Bob asked.

I’d been planning this for nearly two long years. I wasn’t going to let this get held back now. “Mab, Bob. I’m planning on summoning the Queen of Air and Darkness.”

  



	7. Chapter 7

Bob the skull stared at me, the golden light of his eyes not wavering in the slightest. I imagined that the spirit must have been considering what I had said. Possibly considering how to talk me out of it, or what he could do to prevent it. Given what I saw, given what I knew, I needed to talk with the Winter Queen, and I needed to share the information with her. Perhaps it wasn’t too late for her to save her daughter, but I wasn’t certain. I’d been intending on talking with her for nearly two years, but I’d put it off because Harry had been around. He’d stop me from doing this; he wouldn’t understand. Even if I could actually explain it to him, he probably wouldn’t understand. I knew Mab was constrained by her purpose, but she deserved to know about her daughter, to allow herself to make that choice.

“What did you say, Faith?” Bob broke his silence. “You wish to summon _whom_?”

“M—”

“Up-up-up… Don’t say her name. We might be behind warded walls, but I’ve no doubt that she can hear if she chooses to. She’s the _Queen of Winter._ What are you summoning her for? Surely you’re not planning on repeating Harry’s mistake.”

“I’m not going to do that, Bob, and I can’t tell you why I’m summoning her. If I did, there’d be the risk it got back to Harry, and…” If Harry were to find out, he’d want to know how I met the Leanansidhe and Maeve. He’d want to know what Thomas was doing with us that night, and he’d want to know about things that I just couldn’t tell him if I wanted him to stay alive. It wasn’t an option.

Bob sniffed. No, I’m really not sure how he managed to do that, given he was in a skull without a nose or nostrils to do so with. “If you aren’t going to tell me your reasons for summoning her, I can’t see myself helping you to do something foolish like that.”

“Bob, it’s not like I’m going to summon her _here_. I don’t have the authority to invite her past Harry’s threshold and I don’t want to endanger you,” I said. “I’m not stupid, you know.”

“You certainly are acting like you are!” Bob snapped. “Stars and stones, girl, what are you thinking? Summoning a fairy or two I can understand, but the Queen of Air and Darkness? The Evil Queen who makes all Evil Queens pale in comparison? Faith, she’s got the reputation she has for a reason.”

“I’m going to summon her, Bob. With or without your help.” I turned back toward my table with my crystal. “It’s something that needs to be done. Now, you have to ask yourself. Would you rather not help me so as to assuage your conscience, even knowing I’m doing it anyway and I could do it wrong, or would you rather make sure I did the summoning correct so that I survive the encounter? Assuming she’s as bad as you say she is.”

I wasn’t really sure Bob actually _had_ a conscience. I didn’t think the Spirit truly knew or cared about the difference between good and evil, but what I did know was that he didn’t want to piss off Harry. Harry was Bob’s friend and vice-versa. I wasn’t sure whether he’d decide to help me or not, actually, but I hoped that he would, and that his conditions for doing so weren’t too strenuous.

Bob breathed out a sigh, again, very impressive coming from a skull, and said, “Fine. I’ll help you, Faith. On one condition.”

I stopped and turned toward the skull. “What condition?”

Bob seemed to grin. Damnit. I needed the skull’s help. “I’ll help you if you take off your top.”

“… What.” Okay, I suppose I should have expected that. It wasn’t like the spirit was a normal human guy anyway, but still. “Bob, I’m _sixteen_.”

“And? You’re practically an adult already,” Bob said. “You’re clearly developed enough that—”

“Just… stop talking for a second, please.” I wondered how much I could get away with. Obviously the intent of it was for me to go completely bare chested, and that sure as hell wasn’t going to happen. Luckily, with the day as cold as it was, I was wearing layers. “Fine Bob, I’ll take it off.”

I took off my other glove and laid it down on my workbench before turning my back to the skull. If I accidentally pulled my blouse up too far when removing my sweater, I wasn’t going to give Bob the free show that he was hoping for. After removing my coat, I slipped my hands into the center of my sweater and pulled it over my head, leaving the long-sleeved green silk blouse that Becca had given me as a birthday gift last year on. Sure its neckline dipped a bit, which is why I usually wore it under a sweater unless I was out on a date wearing it, but it at least was a little warm. I shivered and rubbed my arms. Harry’s lab got cold in the winter.

“There you go, Bob. Top off. Now, are you going to help?” I asked as I turned back toward him.

The orange lights of his eyes seemed to study me for a second. “You should dress like that more often, Faith. Maybe Harry would take notice and just—”

“Hey. No more trying to pair Harry with his apprentices, please. Harry’s twelve years older than us, and I don’t think he’d appreciate it.” My cheeks were heating up. Why were my cheeks heating up? Must have been a reaction to the cold.

“Fine, fine. Here, take me off the shelf and lay me on the table near where you’re working so I can help.”

I reached out a hand and with a silent mutter of “ _Sfukaze_ ,” I pulled the skull over to my hands. I placed him down next to where I was planning on working, and I mounted the crystal on the holder, grabbing my chisel.

“Warn me the next time you do that, Faith,” Bob said. “Okay, now here’s how you’re going to want to do this…”

We worked together, Bob directing my chiseling and wire-laying for a good while. I used the barest minimum of will as I inlaid the enchantment into the crystal. This crystal was meant to be able to capture the essence of a single shadow, imbue itself with darkness within, so that I could use it as something to call Mab with. See, the way summoning worked was that you needed representations of both the summoner and the being that was being summoned. Five representations for each, at each point of the pentacle that would be used as the summoning source. The other parts for Mab would be easy, but I’d been stuck on the darkness thing until I saw the shadow capture crystal in Harry’s notes. It would work for my purposes, and if it wasn’t destroyed in the ritual, I could use it for a few other purposes as well. Like a belt to help with veiling. Molly might not have needed it, but her veils were so much better than my own.

Of course, mine were also better than Harry’s, so I guess I could consider that a win.

“Fai, you down there?” Molly called out from upstairs, and the smell of… Oh, God, was that fettuccine alfredo?

“Yeah, I’m d-down here, Moll!” I replied, a shiver going through my body, and I slipped on my gloves for a bit of warmth. The crystal was just about finished. “Just finishing up here…”

“Yes, Molly, she’s just finishing up!” Bob called up. “Should only be about a minute more. Get that fire going up there.”

I looked at Bob questioningly. “You don’t want to see Molly?”

“Faith, your lips are blue,” Bob said. “I want you to go get warmed up after you finish wrapping the wire around the top of that crystal. You can put me back on my shelf when you’ve gotten your normal color back.”

Wait. My lips were what? I mean, yeah, it was cold, but I didn’t think it was _that_ cold. I shivered again. “Okay, Bob.” I ran the gold wire into the grooves of the upper part of the crystal, and I focused my will on it as I did so. There. The crystal was done. At least I thought it was.

“Faith, if you don’t get up here soon, I’m going to eat your share,” Thomas’s voice rang out playfully.

“Go, Faith,” Bob urged. “The crystal looks good. You can take it up with you.”

I nodded and, grabbing my sweater, I made my way up the ladder with the crystal in my gloved hand. I was greeted at top of the ladder with a puppy’s face, who immediately licked my own. I sputtered a little and pushed Mouse back.

“That can w-wait a little, boy…” I rubbed my face and looked toward the living room, where, on the coffee table, was Italian food. I couldn’t see my sister or Thomas tho—

“All right, Fai, out you come…” Molly said as she grabbed my left arm, and Thomas grabbed my right, pulling me off of the subbasement’s ladder. “Thomas, go get her a blanket from Harry’s room.”

“Right,” said the vampire as he went down the hall.

Molly nudged me. _Fai, why aren’t you wearing your sweater?_

_Needed Bob’s help._ I shivered and leaned against Molly. She was nice and warm.

“Okay, Fai, come on, let’s get to the couch.” Molly marched me over to the sofa where I was sat down immediately. Thomas came out quickly and handed the blanket to Molly who wrapped it around me. “Now, Fai…”

Mouse jumped up into my lap and started licking at my shirt. I glanced down at him, and he chuffed. He wanted to help warm me up too, it was adorable. Of course, having a fifteen-pound dog lying on my lap wasn’t exactly super comfortable. He moved so he could get as much of his fur into a blanket-like position as possible. Molly moved her hand to pet the dog’s head for a second before reaching for something on the table.

“Let’s try that again, Fai.” Molly smiled. “Did you get the book?”

“Yeah, I got it. It’s cinders and ashes right now,” I said.

“Good, that’ll have Lara off our backs,” said Thomas. “She isn’t happy that you got arrested though.”

“She can s-suck it,” I said with a shiver. “Not my fault the cops showed up when they did, and definitely not my fault the guy was dead.”

“I think I’ll pick better words when I talk to her,” Thomas said. “The good news is, you apparently never actually got charged for anything, and there’s no record of you being brought in.”

“Lieutenant Murphy told me that already,” I said. “When she brought me back… after g-ghouls attacked the station.”

Molly wrapped an arm around me, and with her other arm, she placed a Styrofoam container down in front of me with a plastic fork. I could smell the creamy sauce, and I felt the steamy heat rising off of it. Oh, fettuccine, you were going to be wonderful.

“Ghouls?” asked Thomas.

“Eight of them. Plus, they brought an enchantment with them. A compulsion.” I popped open the container, and I twirled the noodles onto a fork. _Molly, you continue talking for me. I want to eat._

Molly squeezed my shoulder, and I started relaying to her what happened. “Wait, really Fai? Johnny Marcone?”

I nodded and swallowed. “Yeah, confused me too. He waltzed right into that interrogation room and waltzed right out in the ghoul attack.”

“I don’t think that he’d be the kind of person to attack the police station,” said Thomas.

“Not good business,” I agreed. “SI has the murder case though, and Lieutenant Murphy wants us staying out of it without Harry here.”

Thomas shrugged. “People die all the time in Chicago. If the guy worked for Marcone, let the cops or him handle it.”

I swallowed another mouthful of noodles. “Might not be a bad idea, but—”

“—the ghouls were after something, a book.” Molly looked toward the open trapdoor. “Fai left it—”

“—in the lab.”

“… Fine, I’ll reach out to Lara and see if she knows anything more about this guy,” Thomas said. “It might not be much, but…”

“Without Harry here, it’s what we can do.” I ate another mouthful of noodles. So nice and creamy. They used fresh parmigiana too, and it was oh so tasty. “Mrmrnrhmr…”

“Then there’s whoever sent the ghouls, is what I’m pretty sure she was trying to say,” said Molly.

Thomas nodded. “You’ll have to be careful. Harry’s not here to bail you out if you get into more trouble than you can handle.”

“But you are,” I said.

“I’m not at my best,” Thomas said. “Not sure I ever will be again.”

Molly and I nodded. We knew what it would take to get Thomas to his best, and we were pretty sure that none of the three of us there were willing to attempt it together. Thomas hadn’t met our mother yet, but he already was frightened of what might happen were he to feed on either of us with Daddy alone. Even if we gave him permission.

“Okay,” I said. “Tomorrow, then? We’ll look into it on our end but leave the police work to the police and crime bosses?”

Thomas nodded. “If Murphy needs our help, we’ll help her, but it’s probably best she doesn’t know we’re doing it.”

I finished off my noodles as a knock came on the door.

“Hello? Faith? Molly?” I smiled. Daddy was here. Wait, Daddy was here? Molly went to answer the door, disabling the wards as she did so.

“Daddy, it’s good to see you,” Molly said. “But uh, what are you doing here?”

Daddy stepped into the apartment, the candlelight reflecting off his greying beard and salt and pepper hair in a way that made him seem distinguished. He wore a pair of jeans and a flannel jacket over a dark sweater and turtleneck. He wore a pair of snow boots as well, though there still wasn’t any fresh snow around. He locked eyes with Thomas as soon as he saw him, and he smiled. He looked back to Molly and then to me on the couch with Mouse on my lap.

“Your mother sent me to pick you two up.” Daddy looked back to Thomas. “Thomas, wasn’t it? Harry’s older brother?”

Thomas nodded. “Yes sir. Harry’s out of town this week, but he still has your daughters coming in for some work.”

Daddy nodded and went to Thomas, offering his hand for a handshake, which Thomas took. Daddy shook Thomas’s hand, but he also pulled the vampire in close and said something for his ears only.

Thomas radiated surprise, then worry, then relief at Daddy’s words. He nodded then, saying something back to Daddy, who then turned to us.

“Okay, girls, if you’re ready to go… the truck’s still warm.”

Mouse jumped down off my lap so I could stand, and Molly slipped my coat on me, though she grabbed my sweater. She slipped my glove off my right hand and then slipped my hand into hers.

We turned to Daddy and smiled. “Okay, Daddy, let’s go.”

We went out the door after Daddy so we could enable the wards properly after Thomas locked it. It was time to go home for the night. We had much we needed to do tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s note: If you read this on Sufficient Velocity or Space Battles, you might notice a slight difference between this release and the original. I filled in a minor plot hole by changing one word. And that word was “Harry” to “Hello.”


	8. Chapter Eight

The trip home from Harry’s place wasn’t that long, and we spent it mostly in comfortable silence. We thought over the activities of the night. Perhaps we would have better been able to handle those ghouls if we were there together, but we’d managed to face down a fear quite well. Of course, the memories of seeing them… well, they’d never really leave. We stared out the window as fresh snow began to fall. It was shaping up to be a beautiful night, albeit a late one. If Mom sent Daddy to come get us from Harry’s rather than… wait, why had she sent Daddy? Yes, Drew had gone home, but he had offered to come by and take us home from Harry’s. All we’d needed to do was call him and he’d come, but Daddy had shown up before we’d gotten the chance.

“Girls,” Daddy said, and we looked to him. “If you wouldn’t mind, I would prefer if the two of you acted individually for right now.”

We blinked. Daddy hadn’t really asked that of us before, but we supposed that he’d seen us in this way before. It really wasn’t a big deal for us to be like this, but we didn’t want to make Daddy uncomfortable. So, with a brief effort of will, we focused, closing our eyes.

I opened my eyes after a second and looked around. Apparently Molly had taken the window seat of the truck while I was squeezed between her and Daddy. This wasn’t entirely uncomfortable, but it did prevent me from having easy access to looking out the window at the falling snow, which was a little disappointing.

Molly squeezed my hand and smiled. For the briefest of seconds, I saw the snow through her eyes. I raised an eyebrow, and she just shook her head.

“There you two are,” Daddy said, smiling. “Faith, before we get home, I wanted to tell you that Lieutenant Murphy called us, explaining what happened.”

I tensed at the words though there wasn’t any actual anger coming from my father, and Molly squeezed my hand again. _Lieutenant Murphy explained, Fai. Look at him_.

“A-and, Daddy? She explained?”

“Faith, what you saw tonight, I wish you hadn’t. Being a witness to a person’s corpse can’t have been easy for you nor your sister.” Daddy reached one hand off the steering wheel so he could wrap an arm around me, squeezing. “She also mentioned the attack on the police station while you were there. I’m sure Harry would be proud about his training paying off. I’m thankful that you managed to get through unharmed.”

Okay, that feeling was definitely pride, coming from my father mixed with the love he felt for me. Molly’s love also came through.

“Yeah, Fai, you managed to face down three ghouls,” Molly said out loud, mostly for Daddy’s benefit. “Probably did better than I’d have done in a straight-up fight with what you had available.”

I shook my head and Daddy pulled into our driveway. Just outside the front door, on the lawn were six snowmen of varying sizes and quality. Molly and I would have joined in on the building, but we had our practice to do. Making sure we didn’t accidentally blow someone up with magic or worse came first. Plus, if Molly and I really wanted, we could completely just cheat at the snowman making. In fact... No, that was a bad idea. No snow golems. Molly nudged me and grinned. Of course she knew what I was thinking. No snow golems.

The lights were on inside, but it was late. Odds were the only ones awake were Mom, Daddy, and _maybe_ Danny. Though with us getting back, he was going to be in bed soon. He probably was just up late watching some TV or playing some sort of video game. Probably a sports game, but I didn’t know.

After parking the car, Daddy got out. I slipped out after him, and Molly got out her door. I almost was dreading going inside. Daddy might have reacted well to my little situation, but Mom… There really was no telling how she’d react. Mom had adjusted to the fact that we’d been training under Harry, but she really didn’t like it, and now I’d been arres—oh, wait. Daddy hadn’t mentioned anything about my arrest. Maybe Lieutenant Murphy only told him about me seeing the dead body and the ghoul attack.

Daddy opened the door and went inside. I paused at the threshold, glancing idly upward, and a snowflake landed right on the tip of my nose. The sky was getting ready to open up, moment of truth. Molly and I stepped inside. We hung our coats, and Molly and I followed Daddy to just outside the living room, where we could hear the sound of some late-night talk show playing within. Daddy went in, and after we heard the sound of the TV going off, Molly and I followed.

Mom sat in one chair while Danny sat on the couch, sprawled out. He looked half-asleep already with his dark hair mussed up the way it was, but upon seeing Molly and I enter the room, he sat up and scooted over. Mom offered the two of us a smile, and she gestured to the couch. It felt a lot less like Mom was angry with us and a lot more like she was relieved. That was good, I didn’t want to get into a fight with her over something I couldn’t have prevented, and given Molly was dressed more or less normally at the moment, I wouldn’t have to mediate a fight between her and Mom.

_Hey, it’s not like you don’t dress up sometimes too._ Molly nudged me in the side. She was happy to be avoiding a fight for the moment as well. We sat down on the couch, intentionally avoiding unison so that our parents and Danny wouldn’t… react poorly. We might not have been linked fully at the moment, but some things weren’t exactly easy to turn off, nor would we want to if we could do so easily.

“Daniel, please go to bed. I need to talk with your sisters,” Mom said, looking to our brother. “You need to rest up for tomorrow morning anyway.”

Danny let out a sigh. “Fine. Glad you two are okay.” He stood up and left the room. Hopefully he’d remember to change into some sort of pajamas before going to bed. Sleeping in jeans and a tee shirt weren’t the best way to get a good night’s rest.

“So,” Mom said, once we’d heard Danny’s feet on the staircase. “Are the two of you okay? I mean, I know that Molly wasn’t at the station, but Mr. Dresden explained some of the ways the two of you are linked.”

“I’m—” Molly and I started at once, stopped and looked at each other. Yeah, normally we’d just keep going and answer in unison, but Daddy had expressed an interest in us being a bit separate. We’d humor them for now, so I bowed my head slightly, ceding the floor to Molly. “ _I’m_ fine, Mom. It was a bit hectic with Fai there in the station, especially with what she was holding back, but... she managed to deal with the issue.”

“Despite them being ffff—reaking ghouls.” I shivered, the memory of what I Saw coming up in my mind. Yes, I wasn’t going to be sleeping well the next few nights. Molly wrapped an arm around me as I shivered again.

Mom came over to us on the couch, kneeling next to us. I avoided looking her in the eye, as I definitely didn’t want to initiate a soulgaze. Luckily, Mom seemed to want to avoid that too as she wrapped her arms around the two of us and kissed our heads. “I don’t like the fact that you were in danger tonight, Faith, but I also know that given your _abilities_ , it might not always be avoidable.”

Mom’s comfort flared up with a bit more worry when she said, “abilities,” but overall, she radiated comfort and love much like Daddy did. I knew she didn’t like that we were using magic or that were learning from Harry, but she supported us in it, and I loved her for that. Among other things, of course.

“That man is teaching the two of you to harness your strengths, and I suppose I must be grateful that his teachings helped you tonight, Faith,” Mom said.

“I’ll relay that to Harry,” Molly said. “When we tell him about the ghoul attack.”

I nodded.

“Tomorrow morning,” said Daddy, “I would like for the two of you to train with your mother and I for a bit. Your siblings will be joining for a little, and for that part, I would ask that neither of you casts a single spell.”

“And after they leave?” I asked.

“Well, Harry left me with a set of instructions for how he wanted me to work with you,” Daddy said.

“And for me as well,” said Mom. “He really is shaping up to be quite a teacher.”

“Wait, when did he have the chance to meet with both of you?” Molly asked before I could. We’d only found out the previous night that Harry would probably be gone until the following weekend. I’d assumed he had Thomas drop him at the train station given the fact that Thomas was driving around the Beetle and looking a lot less ridiculous when he got out of it.

“As I was taking him to the train station,” Daddy said. “He was giving an update on how you’re progressing, and he wanted to make sure that the two of you were still getting adequate training while he was gone.”

“Ah,” I said. It must have happened while we were in school, which explained the state of the apartment when we’d gone earlier... okay, that was mostly Thomas. I think, anyway. “So, you’re going to train us?”

Mom shook her head. “Yes and no. We’ll be assisting, but most of what Harry wrote down is Greek to us. The two of you will have to figure out some of it. There is something on there that he did suggest we’d be perfect for helping you with.”

“What was that?” Molly asked.

I didn’t like the grin that formed on Daddy’s face at that one bit. “Harry suggested that we could be helpful to you with your shields.”

Oh… This promised to be _fun._ Crap.

*************

After finishing our talk with our parents, Molly and I made our way upstairs to go to bed. Our room had changed a bit in the past couple years since we’d started learning under Harry. We’d moved our beds closer together along two of the walls of the bedroom. The stereo we’d had in there had been given to Alicia since there was a good chance we’d break it by our magic, and instead on top of each of our dressers, we had books and notes. While we didn’t really have our own personal labs, we kept some magical material in our room so we could read over them in our spare time. Harry was great and all, but this was _magic_ , and the more we learned about it, the better we’d be able to handle things that came our way.

On my dresser alone, I had books that referenced chemistry, physics, and what each of them had to do with how magical theory could work for that. Additionally, I had books on materials and their magical significance while Molly’s shelves had to do with projection and the study of how illusions work. I suppose we figured if we could get the theory behind some of the things, it’d help our spells out a bit more. In the corner, we also had a vanity, and the vast majority of the makeup in the vanity was my sister’s. I owned a little of it, but I hadn’t used much since…

At any rate, it was late, and if we knew our parents, we were going to have to get up early for the training. I walked over to the dresser and rummaged around in it, tossing a set of pajamas to Molly before grabbing my own. I placed the shadow capture crystal on the dresser, using an effort of will to start it doing its job. The crystal darkened a bit within.

“So Fai,” Molly said as she started changing into her pajamas. “Think that’ll work?”

“Hope so. Also hope it doesn’t break in the process. It was a bitch to make.” I threw my dirty clothes in the hamper and looked around a bit, frowning. “Hey, Moll, where’s my purse?”

“… I think I might have left it in Drew’s car.” Molly walked over and hugged me. “Sorry. We can call Drew tomorrow and have him bring it with to HVB when we go.”

“Going to have to.” I yawned. “Not like we can get it tonight…”

Molly let go of the hug so that I could finish getting dressed, and we each laid down in our own beds after Molly flipped the light switch. I fluffed my pillow, and rolling onto my side, I closed my eyes. Sure, I wasn’t ready to fall asleep yet, but I owed it to myself to try. If only my heart would stop racing, I’d be able to go to sleep. Molly’s bed creaked slightly and I adjusted my position as she climbed in bed with me, wrapping an arm around my side and cupping my stomach. I snuggled into my sister, and I could relax easier.

My dreams that night were haunted by the visages of the things I’d recently Seen, of ghouls, of percussive sounds in time with a heartbeat, but through it all, I was shielded. The wings of a diminutive protector and my own sister’s arms shielded me from the worst. Though I couldn’t help but remember things as they were, I could put them in context. The ghouls I fought were not the same as the one who almost ate me, the one that held me as she stabbed the cop through the chest. I was not the eight-year-old girl unable to do any sort of magic. I was the apprentice of Harry Dresden, able to fight, able to win… I saw a parade, celebrating my win. We’d managed to win over Nemesis, to beat the Adversary and all that came with it. [color=transparent]Thump-thump-thump-thump.[/color]

The next morning, we got dressed and after eating breakfast, we were outside with the rest of our family. Danny and Mattie were standing next to each other. Mattie was twelve now, and he was only a bit taller than Alicia, as he hadn’t hit the growth spurt we all knew was coming. Alicia had her dark hair tied back in a ponytail to keep out of the way of her glasses. She was ten and pretty athletic at her age despite being my favorite little bookworm. Amanda’s curly blonde hair hung loose around her cherubic eight-year-old face. She didn’t look all that different than we did when we were that age, though her hair was curlier than Molly’s and mine. We also didn’t exactly have her bright color preference, which was obvious when you looked at her dayglow pink coat. Hobbit and Harry were messing around with the snow on the ground while we waited for Daddy and Mom to be ready. She was recently five, just getting ready to enter Kindergarten later this year, while Harry had managed to have his third birthday last October.

These were the people we were protecting with our magic. Our family was the reason we chose to use our gifts. Molly and I smiled, looking over the jawas. I walked over to Hobbit and Harry.

“So, Hobbit, Harry, what’re you two doing?” I asked.

“I’m Hope, not Hobbit…” My youngest sister gave me the most adorable glare.

“Hobbit! We’re playing with the snow FaithMolly!” Harry lifted up a handful of snow. “See?”

“Oh? And what are you planning on doing with that?” I asked.

“He’s going to throw it at you and your sister,” Daddy said from behind me. “While the two of you use your shields.”

“I thought we were going to do some sword practice,” Danny said. “That’s what Mom said last night.”

“We will, Daniel. Molly and Faith need some help from us though, and the best way to do that… is a snowball fight.” Daddy grinned. “So line up everyone and start building your ammunition. Molly, Faith, you two stand over there.”

I joined Molly to stand opposite our siblings, and I splayed out my left hand in front of me. Molly did the same, but where my shield implement was worked into my left-hand glove, Molly wore a solid silver ring on her middle finger that was inlaid with the etchings she used to generate her shield. Yes, it probably would be better if both of us were using some sort of shield bracelet like Harry had, but neither of us had the funds saved up for one yet. Harry didn’t have the material to fix his _own_ shield bracelet yet, so we weren’t going to bother to ask for ourselves.

“Ready yourselves!” Daddy said, and I focused, feeling Molly doing the same next to me.

The runes on my left glove lit up red at first, then shifted through violet to indigo and then to amethyst as I smiled. Sure, we technically didn’t need to actually use an incantation to bring our shields up, but using one would allow us to focus more on it. After the way my shield looked last night, I surely needed the practice too. Harry’s was _defendarius_ , a faux-Latin word that had some significance to him. Molly’s and mine, on the other hand, well, we liked to honor a fallen man. “ _Fusegi!_ ”

Simultaneously, our shields popped into existence. Shimmering translucent silver energy hovered in front of us, and before Daddy could say something more, the snowballs started to fly. Having two separate targets, each with their own shield made it hard to completely shut the two of us down, but after blocking maybe two snowballs, I could feel my shield start to fail. I focused on trying to reinforce it, but the third snowball caught me in the shoulder, followed by a fourth and fifth. Molly hadn’t done much better, but she managed to _slow_ the first snowball before the snowballs piled on.

I fell backward in the snow from the onslaught, and I started laughing. “Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be, is it? _Sfukaze!_ ”

I scooped a big pile of snow up from behind my siblings and lifted it overtop them. Hobbit seemed to realize first, and she started rushing me, but no jawa would escape my wrath on my watch! I snapped the fingers on my right hand, and the spell ended, dumping the snow atop all six of them. Molly started giggling next to me, but she scooped up some snow and tackled me. The two of us started wrestling, only to be joined by the jawas. A lot of snow went into jackets and onto hair in those next ten minutes, and soon enough, we all were giggling like madmen and madwomen.

It took Daddy clearing his throat for us to calm down. We looked to our parents, and both had wide smiles on their faces, but they also had laid out practice blades of appropriate lengths. “Now for part two of the morning. We’ll run through some drills, and then the younger of you can go inside.”

Each of us stood and went to grab a practice blade. Mom helped Hobbit and Harry with theirs, picking out swords that they were able to actually lift and that weren’t the length of their bodies. Mom and Daddy each grabbed a practice blade of their own.

“First, before the drill, your father and I need to warm up a little.” Mom said, smiling at Daddy. She then bowed to him.

“Yes, we’ll show you some of what we want you to work on this morning,” Daddy said before returning Mom’s bow. He sidestepped immediately when Mom swung her blade at him, riposting immediately, only to be blocked by her sword. It was like watching a dance to see Mom and Daddy spar, neither one landing a single blow on the other, but each blow looking like it could cause serious injury if it would connect. The spar ended with Daddy holding the edge of his practice blade against Mom’s neck while she held the point of hers at Daddy’s breastbone. Both backed off and turned to face us.

“You want us to do _that_?” Alicia asked. “Because I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”

Mom laughed. “No, we’ve been doing this for years. What we’ll have each of you doing is some proper drills with footwork. Appropriate for each of your ages and skill levels.”

Harry lifted his sword and swung a few times before tipping over. A smile came to my lips, and I moved to help right my little brother. “Here you go, Harry. Hold the sword like this…”

“Thank you, FaithMolly…” Harry adjusted his grip, and Mom came over.

“I’ll take it from here, Faith,” Mom said. “Amanda, Hope, Alicia, please come over here. We’ll be working here.”

“Leaves us with Mattie, Danny and Daddy, eh?” I smiled and saluted Mom with my sword before joining my other brothers and Molly.

“Okay, let’s get you running through these forms,” Daddy said, and then he stood us in a line. He showed us what he wanted us to work on, a form of kata that he likely learned from Shiro. We ran through it slowly, and Daddy corrected our stances, our swings, and our blocks. He showed us how we needed to move, what we were doing right, and what we needed improvement on. After maybe half an hour, the sun started to peek its way over the horizon, and Daddy called time. He sent the jawas inside with Mattie, leaving just Danny, Molly, Mom and myself outside.

“Okay, now Molly, Faith, come and get these pads on.” Daddy gestured to the chest that held the rest of the training equipment.

“What are we going to be doing next?” Molly asked.

“Sword and shield training for you two,” Daddy said.

“But we don’t have—” Molly started.

“—any shields for training with,” I completed, but then I realized. “Wait, you don’t mean—”

“—we’re going to use our magical shields?”

“While I’m loathe to hurt the two of you in any serious manner—thus the padding—Harry had a point about pain and motivation.” Daddy lightly struck me on the arm with the flat of the blunted practice blade. “You also need to be able to move and shield yourselves, so… this is how we’ll train. If you can’t block the sword well enough, we’ll try again for up to an hour.”

I rubbed where Daddy hit me, and I nodded. “Okay, Daddy.”

“We’ll do it,” Molly said as she finished up her padding. “But what about Danny?”

“He’ll be helping with this. You two will have three opponents,” Daddy said. “Daniel, you should get some padding on too.”

Our brother nodded, and I looked to Molly. Three on two? Better odds than I’d faced the previous night.

“I shouldn’t need to say this, but it was in Harry’s notes,” Mom said. “No offensive magic and no veils.”

“Gotcha,” we said with a smile. “Ready when you are…”

Danny stood, sword at the ready.

Daddy smiled, nodding. “Well then, shall we begin?”

  



	9. Chapter Nine

We finished up our training an hour later with quite a bit more potential bruises than either one of us wanted, but with less than the worst case scenario. Turns out moving and shielding together at the same time? Not that easy. I suppose that’d be why Daddy wanted us to train that way. I barely remembered how Harry fought as-written in the books, and I was eight and traumatized the only time I’d actually seen him fight in person so I wasn’t sure if this was how he used his shield or not. That said, Molly and I definitely had seen some improvement from the start of the training at the end, but we needed time to recover and wash the stink off of us before we went to the comic shop.

For expediency’s sake, we shared the shower, washing each other’s back and making sure we got clean. Molly and I picked out some clothes that were about halfway toward what might scandalize Mom and Daddy while still being somewhat acceptable to them. No need to completely scare them with what we wore, plus with it as cold as it was, we needed to layer up. Under Molly’s faux-fur-lined leather coat, she wore a red sweater over top of a spaghetti-strap black silk and lace blouse. She and I both wore some hip-hugging jeans, and I wore a forest green silk long-sleeved blouse under my own red sweater and faux-fur-lined leather coat. My coat was black to Molly’s brown, and I wore my gloves. Molly stuffed her wands into her jacket’s inside pocket. My own wand was in my purse. Which still remained with Drew. He was going to meet us at _Heroes, Villains and Bystanders_ to bring it to me. He’d drive us around after we were done. Drew was such a good friend.

Molly and I made it to the comic and games shop a little before it opened around eleven in the morning. _Heroes, Villains and Bystanders_ was a locally owned shop that carried everything from a variety of comics to card games, tabletop games, and comic memorabilia. They had an area reserved exclusively for gaming that occupied about half the store, and usually while the store was open, the area was occupied by various gamers and people reading comics. Molly and I had been in often enough over the years that most of the regulars knew us on sight. HVB had the reputation of being one of the more welcoming gaming communities in Chicago, and I’m proud to say that we definitely contributed to that. Of course, most of the players in the shop tended to be boys and men, but our presence meant that the shop wasn’t a “boys club.”

John, the shop owner unlocked the door as we walked up, greeting us with a smile. “Missed you two last night. That boss of yours keeping you too busy to play?”

I shrugged. “Thought we’d give some others a chance at the top. We can’t hog it every week.”

“Besides, you think I want to leave Fai and Drew alone?” Molly asked. “That’s just asking for trouble.”

John laughed as I scowled at my sister. John was probably a little older than our father, somewhere between the ages of “dignified” and “old fart,” and completely bald. He was a little over six feet tall, which put him as barely taller than us, and he had a face that seemed to be perpetually jovial with eyes the color of twinkling emeralds. He wore an _Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes_ sweatshirt and a pair of blue jeans. He was in decent shape, somewhere in that grey area between fit and sedentary, and he looked wide awake and ready for the day, as if he hadn’t been up late the previous night organizing a Magic tournament.

“So, here to pick up your weekly pack or two?” John asked as we followed him inside. “Just give me a second to get the register working.”

“We’ll go look at the new arrivals,” I said, gesturing to Molly. _Don’t want to completely bork his register this early._

Molly smiled and nodded. _So, Polka Man?_

_He’ll probably be here soon. I think he likes to pick up his comics before going to bed. Night shift, you know._

Molly and I walked to the new arrivals section and started to browse. I’d never really been all that into the print side of comics, in either lifetime, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy the storylines. Plus, it always helped to be able to one-up Harry in a geek-off. He just got so defensive; it was kinda cute. As we browsed, I closed my eyes for a second and Listened toward the front of the shop and the parking lot. I knew Polka Man drove some sort of SUV, and the engines of those sounded a bit different than most sedans. Plus, you know, there’d be the telltale sound of polka music playing from his car. It’d be kind of hard to miss that when he drove up.

People started filtering into the shop as I Listened and appeared to browse, some of them regulars here to play their tabletop games, some of them new people, and others just occasional connoisseurs of the world of geek. Then I heard it. You see, when most people think of polka, the average person thinks of Weird Al and his parodies of various songs done in that sort of style, but Polka Man proved that the genre actually had some decent depth, even if it was heavily influenced by the accordion. While I was no big fan of the genre, even I could recognize what Polka Man was playing had some sort of skill behind it.

“He’s here.” I nodded to Molly and the two of us walked over to the gaming area, removing our jackets and sweaters. The store was certainly warm enough that we didn’t need them on, and nobody was going to take them. I left my gloves on, and Molly slipped her wands into her purse, not that we thought we’d need our implements, but it never hurt to be safe.

The store’s entrance bell rang as Polka Man entered. He was a small guy, maybe a shade under five and a half feet tall with a wild shock of black hair on his head, seeming to give him a persistent look of surprise. He wore a set of black wire-frame glasses on his head, framing his face nicely. He hadn’t changed out of his scrubs yet, and he looked like he’d been up dealing with things that nobody really should ever want to deal with let alone have to. Oh, and he had his ID badge on for the Chicago Forensic Institute. Apparently Polka Man’s name was Waldo Butters. I only hoped that he was the one who had done the autopsy on Antonio Maroni. If we were going to help SI out, Molly and I needed to know.

Polka Man, I mean Doctor Butters walked over to the new release rack, and he started thumbing through, likely to see if there was anything new that interested him. I knew he had a subscription with the store, but sometimes there were new comics that people just wanted to check out and didn’t know if they definitely wanted to have it in their box or not yet.

Molly and I sidled up nearby, just as Doctor Butters was reaching for a comic near me, and his arm bumped into my side.

“Oh, sorry,” he said before looking over at me… and straight into my chest. Well then. I couldn’t exactly blame him when his eyes didn’t exactly reach my face when looking straight. He looked up and I locked eyes with him for half a second before looking away. “Sorry, sorry…”

“It’s okay,” I said. “No harm done.”

Molly shook her head. “She’s the one that should be sorry.”

“Huh?” Doctor Butters looked between us and then at each of us in turn. “Twins? What… wait. I’ve seen you two before.”

“I should think so, Doctor Butters,” I said. “I mean—”

“—we’ve been coming here for years.” Molly smiled. “And so have you. I’m Molly, and this is my sister—”

“—Faith. Good to finally meet you in person and not just keep calling you… well, never mind that.”

Doctor Butters looked between us for a second. A wave of confusion from him broke upon the shores of realization. “… Oh, you’re Harry’s apprentices, aren’t you?”

“Oh, thank God. I was afraid for a second—” I started in relief.

“—that her hunch was wrong. You _do_ know Harry. You were the one who did the doctor work when he got shot, right?”

“Ah, yes. Something about him not being able to go to a hospital,” Doctor Butters adjusted his glasses. He seemed tired, and while there was still a little confusion there, he was perking up to our friendliness. “I’m Waldo Butters, but you knew that already.”

“You’re wearing your ID,” I provided helpfully.

“You can call me Butters if that helps,” he said, and it clicked. Oh. _Oh_. _Butters_. I needed to not fuck this up. “And I should put this away.”

Butters took his ID off his scrub jacket and slipped it into one of his pockets. His lethargy almost made me want to yawn, but there was a certain calmness to it.

“So, what’s it like working as an ME?” Molly asked. “Why not be a regular doctor?”

“Being a regular doctor means I have to work on people,” Butters said. Pride tinged with frustration flared up as he described his work. “As an ME, my patients can’t complain to me. Plus, I get to listen to music while I work.”

“Get anything interesting lately?” I asked, adjusting my shoulders slightly and leaning forward so I could look him better in the face while avoiding his eyes.

“Interesting?” Butters’s voice definitely did not squeak. He definitely was not staring at anything. That was a bit more than tiredness poking through. “I’m not really supposed to talk about my work.”

“Come on,” Molly said, bending down so she could be on his facial level easier too. “I’m sure you have all sorts—”

“—of interesting stories to tell.” I smiled at the smaller ME. “Besides, we help out—”

“—Harry sometimes. We’re not going to tell anyone but him…”

“I suppose he would probably get brought in on this one…” Butters mused, as he seemed to follow us, adjusting to our speech pattern. “Fine. But you didn’t hear it from me.”

Molly and I mimed zipping our lips and gestured for him to go on.

“So, this guy came in last night,” Butters said, a wave of calm coming over him. “Homicide had been certain that he’d been stabbed, Vice was pretty sure he died of an overdose, but neither were correct. There was no stab wound and a tox screen came back clean. The blood on the body was consistent with a stab wound, sure, but if they’d looked around his mouth and nose, they’d have seen what actually happened. The blood had come up from his lungs and out his mouth and nose. The man had asphyxiated on his own blood.”

“How does that sort of thing happen?” I asked.

Butters shrugged. “It doesn’t usually in adults. Pulmonary hemorrhaging is usually a cause of death in newborn children, premature babies especially. In fact, I think this might be one of the first adult deaths to this sort of thing… ever. I could be wrong on that though. Especially since I couldn’t find the hemorrhage.”

“Wait, so you’re saying his lungs spontaneously filled with blood?” Molly asked. “There wasn’t a wound?”

“Not one that I could find.” Butters took off his glasses and shook his head. Now a minor bit of frustration and worry shone through. “It’s like his heart just started pumping the blood directly into the lungs, bypassing the blood vessels. What’s even weirder is that his heart… No, that’s too strange.”

“What?” Molly and I asked at the same time.

“His heart was still pumping blood into the lungs when the body got to me, but it had already cooled. His organs had already started to undergo necrosis, even including the heart as it pumped but didn’t beat.”

“Wait, how’s that even possible?” I asked.

“It isn’t.” Butters put his glasses back on. No confusion here, just matter-of-fact calmness. “But that’s what happened. Relay that to Harry, would you? SI might not be able to hire him for this case, but… it seems like something up his alley.”

Molly and I nodded. God, that was weird.

“Don’t worry, Doctor Butters,” I said. “We’ll make sure that—”

“—a wizard will work this case.” Molly smiled, and we spoke in unison. “We guarantee it.”

  



	10. Chapter Ten

A short while after we finished talking to Butters, Drew showed up, clutching my purse under his arm. Today he wore a variant on what he wore the previous night: a leather jacket over a flannel button-up shirt and a pair of dark jeans. He had a cloth hat covering his dark hair, and he wore Upon spotting Molly and I, he quickly navigated through the store to hand it to me. My purse wasn’t all that big, just your standard black leather satchel, in which I managed to fit a few necessary things. Drew was exuding a bit of embarrassment when he handed it to me.

“Fai, do me a favor and hold onto your purse next time,” Drew said, looking directly at me, not my sister. “I got catcalls on my way in.”

“Well, you do look fetching while carrying it,” Molly said with a grin, but I swatted my sister.

“It’s your fault that Drew had to bring it in, Moll,” I said, and then I wrapped Drew into a hug. “Thanks for bringing it to me, Drew.”

“You know I’d do a lot for you, Fai,” Drew said. “Even if I’d prefer it not to be carrying your purse.”

“Why’d you even bring it in, Drew?” Molly asked. “Aren’t we going out to your car anyway?”

Drew and I blinked, and I felt Drew’s embarrassment flare up again. My poor friend probably didn’t think of that. Whoops.

I decided to take pity on him and change the subject. “So Drew, any trouble getting home last night? You didn’t run into anything after dropping Molly with Thomas?”

“Not really, no. Cops seemed like they had better things to do than go after my baby after I dropped Molly off with the vamp.” Drew wrapped his arm around my back and I leaned into it with a sigh. “Of course, I half-expected the cops to go after _him_ with that ridiculous hunk of junk that he was driving.”

“The Blue Beetle isn’t a ridiculous hunk of junk,” Molly and I chorused from rote memory. “It’s supposed to be a classic.”

“Of course,” I added. “That’s just what Harry wants us to think. I think it’s even more ridiculous when Harry’s driving it. He’s got a good head on Thomas.”

“Your teacher is freakishly tall,” Drew said. “You wouldn’t really know it from the way he acts though.”

I giggled, joined quickly by my sister. “That’s Harry for you.”

“So, if we’re heading out to my car, where are we heading today?” Drew asked as he led me and my sister out of the shop. I locked gazes with John for half a second before raising a hand with three fingers on it and pointing behind him and then at the register and computer behind the desk. He nodded, getting my meaning and started to pull some things from the shelf and help the next customer in line.

“Fai’s got some plans for today that need us out and about.” Molly slipped her hand around my waist, on the other side of me as Drew. “The plans aren’t necessarily the best ones, but—”

“—they’re the ones I have. To do,” I said, cutting Molly off somewhat as we reached Drew’s car.

The Ex Machina was Drew’s baby, an ocean-blue ’76 Mustang convertible that he’d recently redone all of the detailing and interior on. Of course, it being winter, Drew had the top up, albeit not the hard top that I knew he had in his garage. Drew avoided putting the hard top on his car whenever possible, and often he’d keep it off when he should have it on. Usually the hard top would only go one when a real bad snow was expected, and even then, he usually kept the Ex Machina in his garage in the winter time.

Drew opened the passenger-side door and leaned the seat forward so Molly could slip into the back behind him. I slid the seat back and took shotgun, closing the door.

When Drew came around and got in the driver’s side, he turned to me. “So, where are we heading, Fai?”

I told him, and he frowned.

“Wait, wasn’t that where…?”

“I told you that her plans aren’t necessarily the best ones, Drew.” Molly looked to me. “Why you want to do it _there_ of all places is beyond me.”

“You know why,” I said. It was impossible for her to not know, but Molly and I didn’t always agree on everything. “It hasn’t been touched since, and most of what was set up is still there.”

“So your goal is to, what, reappropriate it?” Molly asked. “Redirect what it was originally used for?”

“Uh, ladies?” Drew tried to get our attention. “Vanilla mortal here, what are you trying to do, Fai?”

“She’s trying to do a summoning ritual,” Molly said.

“A summoning ritual, like what Cece was trying?” Drew asked.

“Nothing quite so grand,” I said, and Drew turned down a street that went by Millennium park. “I just want to talk to the thing I’m summoning and then have her go back.”

“And you think that using _there_ is going to work?” Molly asked.

“It will work, sis.” I looked to the warehouse we were pulling up to, the one we lost Cecelia, Glenn and Jason in. “It’ll work. Just one more tie for the bond.”

“Right, want me to come in with?” Drew asked. “Because I’d really rather not go in there again.”

“I can go in alone,” I said.

“Not a chance, Fai. We’re doing this together.” Molly clasped my shoulder. “You can stay out here and be warm, Drew.”

Drew nodded and reached over to squeeze my hand. “Don’t do anything too reckless, Fai.”

“I won’t,” I said, squeezing his hand back and smiling. “Thanks for worrying.”

“Give me a holler if you need me. I’ll do what I can,” Drew said.

Molly and I nodded, before getting out of the car to head inside. We slipped past the chain-link fence outside and then, after sliding aside a metal panel and grabbing a glove-full of snow, we stepped inside. The interior of the warehouse was mostly burned out, scorch marks charring the ground at some areas where the gas lines had exploded, but the pentagram painted on the ground remained intact. The altar-like table at its center remained intact, albeit a bit affected by rot as it hadn’t been kept up. The building itself looked like it hadn’t changed at all since two years ago, and there was a good reason why. A psychic pressure hung in the building, warding off would-be squatters and most supernatural beasties. Dark magic had happened here, death and destruction and Old would-be gods. Yes, whatever enchantments that Cecelia had used had long-since been destroyed with the rising of the sun, but the impression here upon the Nevernever and upon our plane of existence wouldn’t change.

I hoped to take advantage of that. Cecelia opening the gate here led to the clearing in the middle of Faerie where we were, but with my ritual, I hoped to reconnect to an area that was more aligned with the feelings left by what Cecelia had done. If the ritual went correct, we could attract the attention of Queen Mab and have her appear. If it went wrong, odds were that nothing would happen. With Molly here alongside me, I wasn’t worried all that much about the worst-case scenario from this summon. We’d combine our talents and escape quickly from anything that wanted to fight.

“Molly, mind helping set up?” I asked, and Molly laughed.

“Right, I’ll do your half, you focus on _hers_.” Molly held out her hand, and I reached into my purse, pulled out my wand and tossed it to her. The most formal summoning ritual, as taught to us by Harry, has ten major components outside the circle. Five of the components involve aspects of the being you’re trying to summon, and five involve the summoner. This is considered to be one of the politer ways of talking to beings from the Nevernever, and while it might be possible to get the attention of the Winter Queen in a simpler fashion, there was far more a chance that she’d be willing to listen to what I had to say if I went about it this way. For the parts to link to Mab, I chose the shadow capture crystal, now full of dark shadows, a pile of freshly fallen snow, the very building we were in, a Snow-Covered Swamp, and half of a stone that I’d chosen from outside. Representing me was my wand, my pentacle and cross necklace, one of my Magic Decks, a single drop of my blood, and the other half of the rock. Molly hadn’t included any items to represent herself in this, as I was the one who wanted to do the summon, and I was the one who was going to speak.

I’d found five candles and placed them at each point on the pentagram. I lit them with an effort of will, and closed the circle with another. For all of this preparation, the actual ritual itself wasn’t all that much more than gathering up energy and calling upon the being, using the thaumaturgical link between the items and the target to get her attention.

So I started. “Queen Mab of the Unseelie, I bid thee, come forth.” Power gathered within me and the circle as the flames kicked up. “Mab, Queen of Winter, I ask to speak with thee, come forth.” My voice echoed through the room, power carrying my words, hopefully to not fall upon deaf ears. “Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness, by these items I call upon thee, and I bid thee, come forth!”

I shouted the last bit and the candles extinguished with a gust of wind. It happened suddenly. One moment I was the only one in the circle with Molly standing outside, watching, and the next, another woman stood in the circle with me. She stood about my height with snow-white hair that went down to her mid-back. Her skin was pale, with her lips the color of frozen mulberries. Her eyes were green with catlike slits for pupils and she wore a red cocktail dress that hugged her amazingly gorgeous form. She wore heels that matched the dress as well. Her eyes and ears marked her as sidhe, and given what I knew, I didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried that she didn’t hold the dagger I’d last seen in the possession of the Leanansidhe. Oh God, the power I felt. Molly was lucky that she was outside the circle, lest the both of us get overwhelmed by the sheer presence of Mab. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the Queen of Air and Darkness, but then the power faded, contained itself. Mab looked at me and smiled.

“It has been a while since I have received such a… _personal_ summon, Mortal. Most do not wish to dare.” Mab’s voice was cold, calculating, yet somehow sensual at the same time. She stepped toward me, and it took much of my concentration not to back away. Her heels made a slight rhythmic noise as she walked toward me. “Your mentor especially, I suspect, would have words about this.”

“I hope that my summons did not come at a bad time,” I said.

“The time for summons is rarely a good one, Mortal,” Mab said, walking closer to me, her shoes still moving rhythmically, and then turning toward Molly. While she gave no outward reaction to the two of us, her eyes seemed to perhaps be more calculating. “If it is a boon that you wish, ask. Perhaps I will even grant it.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want a boon, or a gift, or anything, really.”

“Then why, Faith/Molly Carpenter, did you send the summons?” Mab somehow said both of our names simultaneously. I could clearly make each name out though they came out at the same time. “I am not some wyldfae that can be called upon on a whim.”

“Of course not, Queen Mab,” I said. “I summoned you because I have information that is relevant to Winter, and you in particular. I know of the Adversary; of what it is called. I know of Nemesis, and I know that it has infected some key sidhe within your court.”

Mab’s gaze locked upon mine, icy cold eyes hiding something behind them, but I couldn’t tell what. She was too inhuman. “Go on, Mortal. Explain.”

“A few years back, the Leanansidhe was given a gift from the Red Court. A dagger, an athame that presumably belonged to some ancient witch,” I said. “This athame contained essence of the Adversary, a corruptive essence that affected the Leanansidhe, but I believe she will come to realize what it is doing to her and come to you for help, if she hasn’t already.”

“The Leanansidhe, then,” Mab said.

I shook my head. “I saw her with the dagger two years ago. Around your daughter, Maeve. I don’t know exactly how this influence works or what needs to be done for it to work, but it’s possible that she has infected Maeve already. The Adversary is insidious, and I don’t know of how to actually detect it.”

Mab’s stare could freeze flame as she looked at me. “Miss Carpenter, this information that you have shared is dangerous and powerful.”

“I realize that you have no reason to believe me,” I said. “But I felt that you should know.”

Mab’s lips quirked up into a cold smile. “Yes, I suppose you did.”

“Please be careful when you verify this information. The Adversary is dangerous,” I said.

“Do not forget whom it is that you called, Mortal!” Mab came up to me, grabbing my jacket’s lapels and lifting me off the ground.

“Faith!” Molly ran toward the circle, crossing the barrier and breaking it. Mab took one hand off me and waved it at Molly, causing her to float in midair as well.

“I am _Mab_. Assuming your information is correct, I will remove this _taint_ from my subjects,” Mab looked at me directly. “Yet still you want nothing.”

“N-not at all…” I said, shivering as ice started to work its way down my coat.

“With the drums of war beating at your gate, you wish to simply pass information along, how novel.” Mab lowered Molly and I to the ground. “Knowledge is power, and you have shared some, Mortal.”

“I don’t want anything from you,” I said. “Help your subjects, help your daughter.”

“Again you forget your place, Mortal.” Mab cupped my chin, and then she tilted my head to the side. Immediately afterward, she surprised me by kissing me, thoroughly. Her lips tasted of frozen cherries, and her mouth and tongue were as ice. When she broke the kiss, I breathed out a puff of frost, and my heart raced.

“Perhaps you would make a good Knight, Miss Carpenter, if…” Her gaze turned to Molly. “But then, perhaps not… Listen for the drums.”

And then she was gone.

  



	11. Chapter Eleven

I’m honestly not sure what I had been expecting from the summon, but initially I was of the opinion that it could have gone much worse than it had. Mab was far scarier than I had been expecting; the sheer amount of power that she’d displayed without actually using it was terrifying. Of course, then there was the kiss. I ran my thumb over my lips dumbly as I stood in the circle, staring at where the Winter Queen had been. My heart pounded in my ears. Why had she kissed me? What was going through that fae’s head when she did that? Why had—

My head cocked back as Molly’s hand connected with my cheek in a loud smack.

“What the _fuck_ were you thinking, Fai?” Molly asked, and oh God, she was radiating fear and worry. How could I have missed that? “I mean; I get summoning her. I get telling her about the thing, but Fai, why the fuck did you antagonize her? Why did you let it get to the point where she was trying to teach us our place?”

“I wasn’t… I didn’t…” I couldn’t answer my sister. I didn’t have one I’d find acceptable myself, let alone one I could give to Molly.

Molly wrapped me in a hug and placed her forehead against my own. “Fai, what would I have done if she took you from me? What would you have done if she took me from you? Neither of us can face her power alone.”

“We’re not Harry,” I murmured.

“No, we’re not. So you should stop trying to be him.” Molly sighed. “Fai, next time you do something like this, we do it together.”

“Next time I summon the Winter Queen?” I asked.

“Fai,” Molly chided.

“Okay, okay…” I wrapped my arms around my sister. “We’ll do it together. Always together.”

“Forever as one,” Molly whispered in my ear, and we nodded in unison. We were always better together, anyway. We wouldn’t make the mistakes that we’d make alone. We wouldn’t let the specter of old relationships haunt us, nor would we let issues of past lives do the same. We still had more to do today though. What Polka Man… that is to say, what Butters told us, it was disturbing. Then there was the case of the ghouls that had attacked the police station when we were there. We fought down the shudders of revulsion that the memories of what had been Seen brought forth, and we determined what we needed to do next.

Well, first we needed to gather up what we’d used for the summoning. It wouldn’t do to leave valuable Magic cards lying around in an abandoned warehouse, and we’d spent so much time working on that shadow capture crystal—which honestly needed a better name—that it would be a shame to leave it. Who knew what uses we’d find for it later? We picked up the once again clear quartz crystal, and we put it into my/our purse. We did the same for the wand, the cards, and the other items. The snow we left to eventually melt in the warehouse. We glanced down at our watch. The summon hadn’t taken all that long. Whatever Mab had done, we’d deal with it, together, as we always would.

We slipped out of the warehouse the way we got in and passed through the chain-link fence. There was no need to use any sort of magic to do so, and given that we wanted to be sure that Drew had a working car to take us to our next location, we just made it through the fence fine. We approached the Ex Machina—at some point, we really needed to talk Drew into renaming it—and waved to Drew with a smile on our faces. Drew got out of the car, and walked around to open the passenger-side door. Our friend was such a gentleman.

Drew looked at us as we approached the door and he cocked an eyebrow. We could feel his concern for our well-being, and the subtle joy he had that we were alright. “Went that bad, did it?”

“What do you mean?” we asked, stopping a few feet away. “It went about as well as could be expected given the preparation that went into it.”

“Mm-hmm. If the two of you are sure,” Drew said. His concern hadn’t fully abated, but a bit of exasperation shone through. “Who am I to argue with the gorgeous Carpenter twins?”

We shook our heads, smiling. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Mister Warren.”

“Well, you two do need to get inside,” Drew said, gesturing into the car, and we nodded. One of us climbed into the back seat, and the other sat up front. Drew looked at us and pursed his lips. He felt a slight sense of disappointment? Why? “Okay, if the two of you want to trade from where you sat earlier, who am I to judge? Where to next?”

We shrugged. “Not sure yet. We’ll need to think on it and maybe talk it out.”

“Well, let’s at least get away from this warehouse,” Drew said, and he went around to get into the driver’s seat. The warehouse gave a genuine dread response from him. “But I think lunch sounds good about now, how about you two?”

“Could be,” we said. “But it might be best to talk out what Butters said on an empty stomach.”

“Butters?” Drew asked in confusion as he drove away from the warehouse.

“Polka Man,” we said, and then we explained what the ME had told us along with what we’d seen and encountered the night before. We felt his disgust at the description, but he kept a cool demeanor. Drew might not be a wizard’s apprentice, but he’d been read in on the Venatori thing and acted as such alongside us. Drew deserved to be kept in the loop as much as possible, and as much as we’d wanted to tell Becca, we couldn’t. Despite being heavily goth, Becca held very little belief in magic, and proving it around her… we didn’t want to scare her. We’d tried to be normal. Drew not only believed in magic—which was understandable, considering what he’d encountered—he actively helped us out when we needed it. He’d offered a unique understanding and viewpoint that, frankly, we probably needed on this. We weren’t the detectives that Harry Dresden was.

“So, Faith,” Drew looked into the rear-view mirror at us. “You saw this guy’s dead body, whose heart was apparently still pumping blood somehow without beating. You know, that’s physically impossible, right? The heart works as a pump because of its vessels and chambers. If it’s responsible for moving the blood in the body, there’s no way it isn’t beating as those chambers open and close.”

“Magic,” we said, the one in the back seat talking first, followed by the one in the passenger seat. “It’s the only real explanation we can think of.”

“Okay, so some sort of thauma-whatsit?” Drew asked.

“Maybe. We’d have to ask the expert.” We shrugged.

“Okay. And then you got arrested and spoke to Johnny freaking Marcone. And then fought ghouls who were after a book that wasn’t the book you went in there to destroy. That about sum it up?” Drew asked.

“Yeah,” we said.

“Why would ghouls be after a book that you found in a dead guy’s apartment? They didn’t kill him. Some sort of magic did.”

“Maybe they were hired… to… Huh.” We rubbed our chin. Why had the ghouls been after the book? How had they even known that it was in the police station? How had they organized the strike so quickly?

“So, if they were hired, does that mean that they’ll try again?” Drew was rightfully concerned.

“Maybe. But the book’s at Harry’s place right now, and we don’t think that any ghoul could get past Harry’s wards on a whim.” We paused for a second. “And our own place has Daddy home right now, and the panic room should be enough to keep everyone safe.”

“Still…” Drew pulled onto the highway. “If we could find out who hired them, that might be helpful.”

We shuddered. Drew was right, but tracking down ghouls directly was something of a fool’s errand. Who knew how many ghouls there were in Chicago alone? We didn’t even really have anything to link to the specific ghouls that were at the station, given that they hadn’t left any tissue samples, and Muttley the ghoul had to have been destroyed by now. Lieutenant Murphy seemed competent, and she hadn’t completely snitched on us to Daddy and Mom. If she had, heads would have rolled hard.

There was a way that we could try and track down the ghouls, and perhaps we’d even be able to do it relatively undetected. We’d also be able to have a good lunch while we were at it, and Lord knew, we were starting to get pretty hungry. We’d just have to do something that Harry would do. “Drew, we know where we want to go for lunch,” we said.

“Where to, then?”

“Pizza Express, one of the ones we can sit down at. We’ll need to order some extra pies though,” we said, a grin coming to our faces. This wasn’t exactly all that stupid, all things considered. We just needed to make sure that we had the right amount of bribery for the job at hand.

Drew nodded. “Sure, pizza’s not bad, but why the extra pies?”

“Sometimes, Drew,” we said. “Seeing is believing.”

“Hate it when you two do the mysterious crap,” Drew muttered as he focused on driving. We reached over to squeeze his arm and shoulder, offering a smile. He returned it into the rear-view mirror. “So, you two planning on staying that way all day then?”

“Just for… a bit longer, really,” we said in a soft voice. “There are things we need to sort out, and it’s… easier to do it this way.”

“Right. Only reason I ask is we might want to have the two of you acting individually before we go into the restaurant,” Drew said. “Not that the two of you acting together is a bad thing, but some people find it creepy.”

“Not you though?” We asked.

“You’re my friends, no matter whether you act individually, together, or not at all. The two of you would have to try seriously hard If you wanted to creep me out.”

“Awww…” we cooed. “Drew, that’s almost sweet.”

He laughed as he pulled into the Pizza Express parking lot. We idly noted the contents of the parking lot when a dark sedan, driven by…. Oh, fuck. Drew parked the car, and we quickly got out of it. The sedan parked swiftly afterward, and the red-haired driver stepped out and toward the back of his car. We recognized the man on sight. Given his linebacker size, it was hard not to.

“Drew, we might have company for lunch,” we said, and then I shook my head from where I stood next to the car.

Drew came around and wrapped an arm around my back. “Oh?”

A familiar blonde woman slipped out of the car first, and then he stepped out, dressed in a different sports coat than the previous night. I tried to gesture toward the man before he noticed us, but clearly that was going to be a losing battle.

“Yeah, it seems like Mr. Marcone is going to be eating here too,” I said in a hushed voice. “And if—”

“—he’s here, there’s a reason,” Molly said. “And Fai’s that reason, probably.”

Drew pursed his lips, and then ducked down as Marcone looked our way. Too little too late, as he and Miss Gard approached.

“Good afternoon, Miss Carpenter and Miss Carpenter. I believe that it’s time we continue our conversation from last night. You’re welcome to join, Mr. Warren. We’ve the restaurant to ourselves for the next few hours.”

Oh. Wonderful. I’d have to ask how he managed to predict that we’d come here. There were more questions I needed answers to as well. I suspected Marcone might be able to provide them.

******************************

The interior of Pizza Express is more or less as can be expected from a pizza chain. There was an ordering counter for to-go orders, a way for delivery drivers to come and go with their orders, and the register on the counter. As this particular Pizza Express had the full restaurant attached to it, there were tables and booths arranged under soft yellow lights that hung over each table, in an attempt to give it a sort of faux-rustic feel. There even was a pizza buffet set up as the centerpiece of the restaurant, with about three or four pizzas out there that had likely sat for a couple hours at this point. This definitely wasn’t my _favorite_ pizza joint, but it definitely was one of the cheaper ones. They would be able to provide the amount of pies that we needed for later anyway.

Especially since the restaurant seemed to be devoid of customers other than the six of us. Molly, Drew and I stood at the entryway, having followed Marcone and his two bodyguards in. I didn’t even want to think about the money that Marcone must have dropped to get the place to empty or whatever else he might have done. There was something odd about an Italian mob boss buying out a pizza joint for a few hours, especially one as… low class as Pizza Express, but I wasn’t about to bring that up to Marcone. While he had a reputation for not doing anything to minors, Drew was almost nineteen. I didn’t want to give him an excuse.

The hostess practically fell over herself upon laying eyes on Hendricks and Gard, and she quickly led the six of us to a table, where we sat opposite of Marcone and his people. Marcone sat in the middle, opposite me, Hendricks to his right, Gard to his left, and Molly was on my right while Drew was on my left. I could feel Drew’s apprehension and Hendricks’s, even if the man looked like he was perfectly willing to tear into us on the simple order from his boss. Molly’s hand was on my own, and while we weren’t acting as one, we were ready to act in some sort of fashion should things turn south.

“Ladies, and Mister Warren,” Marcone smiled at us, though it didn’t reach his eyes. I’m not sure any of his shark-like smiles would ever do so. “Thank you for being willing to sit down and talk with me.”

“Did we have much choice?” Drew asked, and I reached my left hand over to his, squeezing it slightly.

“Respect, Mister Warren, is something you could deign to show,” Marcone said. “You had plenty of choice. You could have chosen to go somewhere else when you saw me drive up. You could have flat-out refused to eat with me. That you did not is something that deserves some thanks.”

Drew grimaced, but I spoke up, “Mister Marcone, why go through all of this? Renting out this place just to talk to us. For that matter, how did you even manage to get here a short while after us?”

Marcone nodded to Miss Gard. “I employ rather thorough people. The hair sample will be destroyed, Miss Carpenter, but when our talk last night was interrupted, I needed to have a way to reach you again. Miss Gard had the forethought to retrieve a hair from you so that we could track you down today.”

“For what… sir?” Molly had to force herself there. Harry might have been willing and able to backtalk Marcone, but Marcone allowed it because it was _Harry_. I doubted that any sass from us would be appreciated or allowed, and while Hendricks might not have liked violence, he easily could commit it.

“That, Miss Carpenter, has much to do with Antonio Maroni. I know that none of you were responsible for his death, and that at the least, you were there to do something with a book. Destroy it for whatever reason, perhaps. That does not matter.”

Internally I breathed out a sigh of relief. Having Marcone work out the facts about the Venatori was something that absolutely _could not happen_ if we could avoid it.

“So, if this isn’t about the book, and you know we didn’t cause the death…” I paused. The cops had gotten there too fast, in full SWAT gear. They’d arrested me but never put me into the system. Marcone had been the one to come into the interrogation room before I even saw a single police officer beyond the ones who put me in there. Marcone had been the one to unlock my cuffs when the ghouls attacked. “You called the police on your own man… why? No… wait. The drugs, right?”

Marcone’s lips twitched upward. “Impressive. While I have no objections to my men earning a bit of money on the side, I do object to when they feel they can break the rules. Antonio did that, albeit unintentionally. I felt that some time in jail would allow him to think about those rules and why he shouldn’t break them.”

“But someone killed him before the cops could even get there,” Molly said, picking up on my line of thought. “You want to find out who.”

Drew tapped his chin for a second. “If it were a normal death, you’d be able to handle it easily, too. But the fact that it’s definitely magical in nature means you need to resort to using magical means.”

Marcone nodded. “Normally, Miss Gard and her employer’s help are sufficient for dealing with the supernatural threats that I come across.”

“So what makes this different, Miss Gard, Mister Marcone?” I asked. “Surely you don’t nee—oh, SI. Oh. Harry.”

“You were going to tell Harry not to look into this,” Molly said. “Tell him not to interfere with what your plans were...”

Gard smiled wide. “Perceptive, aren’t you? What made this different, Miss Carpenter, was the attack last night on the police station. The compulsion combined with the ghouls… it happened too fast.”

“You think there’s a leak in your organization,” Drew said.

Marcone unclasped his hands, spreading them. “And with Mister Dresden out of town, you see my conundrum.”

“So meeting with us, what, you want us to… what, exactly?” I asked.

“Continue your investigation,” Marcone said. “And when you find the killer, alert me before the police.”

“And what would we get in return?” I asked. Honestly, I was pretty proud with how the three of us were holding together. Drew’s heart, much like mine and Molly’s was likely to beat out of his chest any minute now, but we were negotiating with a mob boss. We were negotiating with a mob boss that had a soft spot for children, sure, but Johnny Marcone was still a mob boss. Hendricks seemed relieved that we weren’t going to cause any sort of violent trouble, but you’d never see it on the man’s face or in his physical demeanor.

“Cooperation and a personal favor,” Marcone said. “I will allot you whatever resources you might need for your investigation and my team will handle the problem that is the killer.”

Drew looked at the two of us, and I knew that he’d stick by whatever decision we made regarding this. He had our backs, but given that Molly and I were going to be doing the magical heavy lifting regarding this case, whether to accept the help and provisions that Marcone was offering, that was our decision. Molly caught my eye, and we both had a similar thought pass through our heads. What would Harry do in this situation? The second thought was, is what Harry would do appropriate to the situation? Could we get away with it? Molly bowed her head forward, and I nodded.

“While I must admit that the offer certainly is tempting, Mister Marcone,” I said. “We can’t—”

“—accept it in good conscience,” Molly finished. “There are words that Harry would use in this situation—”

“—but since we’re in polite company, we won’t use them, sir.” I smiled to Johnny Marcone. “We’ll find the killer, but then we’ll find a way for someone appropriate to deal with him.”

Marcone nodded and stood, his retainers standing with him.

“If you should change your mind,” Marcone said, dipping into his sport jacket to pull out a business card. He placed it on the table near me. “Call that number and let them know who you are. Don’t worry about the cost of your lunch. Whatever you order is fully paid for. Miss Gard, Mister Hendricks, let’s go.”

We watched them as they left the restaurant, and I let out a huge sigh of relief, leaning forward onto the table. “Stars and stones, that was terrifying.”

“And _she_ wasn’t?” Molly asked. “We were probably safer here than we were in the warehouse.”

“Wait, really?” Drew said and then he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. A little worry shot from him, but he masked it with warm reassurance. “Fai…”

“We’re fine. We’re here, and we’re fine,” I said, leaning into his arm a little. “It’s just… I probably should have handled that better earlier.”

“Well, what’s done is done,” Drew said. His emotions felt so warm, it was nice. The arm was comfy too. “Now… weren’t we going to order some pizza?”

Molly nodded, standing up. “I’ll go get our waiter or waitress. I’ll see about getting the five other pizzas ready too.”

I nodded. Harry hadn’t really told us about the being we were going to attempt to bribe into a little bit of service. I remembered him from the books, and I’d asked Bob about wyldfae before. Bob mentioned that Harry had used the services of a particular wyldfae to help in a couple of his cases, and he mentioned that the pixie had a particular fondness for pizza. What I hadn’t been able to get out of the skull was a true name. I wasn’t sure that Bob knew it, and I doubted Harry would tell me if I asked. So I just needed to count on the fact that the pizza should be enough to draw him in, even if I only used the colloquial name that Harry used. Funnily enough, this was more Molly’s idea than my own, even if we thought of it together.

Pixies could find just about anything in the city. See, wyldfae were everywhere if you knew where and how to look. Being apprentices of Harry Dresden, my sister and I definitely knew.

I leaned into Drew’s arm a little more, lifting my head off the table, and I grabbed the business card. I probably wasn’t going to use it, but one day it might have been useful to contact Marcone with. Doing anything with or for Marcone left a bad taste in my mouth, but there might have been a time where I could be desperate enough.

“Fai,” Drew said while Molly was hunting down our waitress. “After we’re done looking around and going all over town, there’s a restaurant I’d like to try with you tonight if you’re open to it.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” I said. “You usually have pretty good taste, Drew.”

“Good thing too, because you two?” He gestured at the counter. “Pizza Express, really?”

“Blame Harry for this,” I said. “I’d prefer Giordano’s for lunch, but I’m not spending that much on a pizza that’s going to get… well, you’ll see.”

“Why does that make me nervous?”

“Because you, Mister Warren, have seen some shit.” I poked him in the belly with a smile that was quickly returned by him. “But trust me, Drew… this is a nice surprise. I’m not sure we’ll be able to pull it off, but if we can, it’ll be awesome.”

“If you say so, Fai.” Drew squeezed my shoulder, his smile getting a bit wider. I looked into his brown eyes for a second, but I pulled away from them before the soulgaze could start. “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Look in and look away,” Drew said. “I’ve noticed you and Molly both do it, but it never really seemed like the right moment to ask.”

“Has to do with our magic,” I said. “An inherent thing all wizards have in common is the Soulgaze. You know that old saying ‘the eyes are windows to the soul?’”

“Yeah?”

“It’s a lot more literal for wizards,” I said. “And when I look at someone, they get to see me in return. And it’s not exactly a forgettable experience.”

“Ah… Okay then,” Drew said, seemingly satisfied. “I just wanted to know. It’s too bad though.”

“What is?” I asked.

“Never mind,” Drew said, suddenly looking past me, and I turned my head to follow his gaze. Molly was on the way back with the waitress. I sat up a bit straighter, and Drew lowered his arm.

“So, they’ll cook the five pies after we get our actual order. Marcone actually paid for everything,” Molly said, a smile on her face. She was feeling a bit smug for some reason. “So, eat first—”

“—feast second,” I said, and when the waitress came to finally take our order, we gave it to her. Once we had the pies that we needed, we’d get ready to bribe a pixie. I could worry about other things after we dealt with finding the killer.

  



	12. Chapter 12

It really wasn’t all that long before we finished our pizza. Magic and the practice this morning burned through a lot of calories, and the pizza helped to replace some of what we used. Pizza Express wasn’t exactly the best possible pizza we could have gotten, but considering Marcone had given us carte blanche on our order, we ordered the most expensive possible pizza we could there, plus an additional six pies for our planned subcontracting. After signing the tip line, we made our way out to Drew’s car, and placed the pizza in his back seat, next to where Molly would sit.

“So, I need to ask again, why the extra pizza?” Drew looked to me. “I know you’re not going to eat it.”

“It’s for a contact of Harry’s,” Molly said. “He might be able to help us track down where the ghouls were staying, since Fai didn’t grab anything of theirs to use for a tracking spell.”

“I didn’t exactly have the chance,” I said with a shiver, the memory of just how the ghouls actually looked being called up in my mind. I needed to not use the Sight like that again if I could avoid it. And the…. God, the officer, the… officers. Drew and Molly both squeezed one of my shoulders, and I smiled at them. “M-Muttley got killed by Lieutenant Murphy, and the other two… I really don’t know how they managed to escape, but she didn’t mention them.”

Molly climbed into the car and buckled up. “Maybe they slipped out later or had some sort of veil device like that Orb of Fear.”

Drew slid the seat back for me, and I got into the car. “Or maybe Lieutenant Murphy didn’t notice them when you were throwing around lightning, Fai.”

“Maybe. I was trying to keep away from Muttley,” I said.

“Wait, Muttley? Like Wacky Races? That Muttley?” Drew asked as he got into the driver’s seat and we shut our doors.

“The ghoul was furry, had a distended lower jaw, and I was trying to make it much less scary than it was,” I said. “Muttley.”

“Wasn’t Wacky Races on when your _dad_ was a kid?” Drew teased.

“Hey, you’re the one who noticed,” Molly said. “Cartoon Network was fun when we were younger.”

“Okay, I’ll drop it.” Drew started the car. “So, where to? Also, what kind of contact needs six pizzas?”

I pursed my lips, but Molly spoke before I could, “I think we should set it up a couple blocks from here. We don’t actually need to be in a building for this to work.”

“And the contact?” Drew said, picking a direction and driving.

“A fairy by the name of Toot-Toot Minimus,” I said. “Well, that’s his colloquial name, anyway. Assuming this goes well enough, he’ll show up for the pizza.”

“When you say fairy…”

“She means the traditional kind of fairy,” Molly answered. “A pixie to be exact. Toot should really enjoy the pizza, and he’ll probably help out.”

“It’s the perfect offering to tiny fairies,” I said.

“Six pizzas. Fairies. I guess when I see it, it’ll make sense.” Drew pulled over.

I patted his leg lightly. “Trust me, Drew. It’ll make even less sense when you see it.”

“That’s supposed to make me feel better?” Drew snorted and parked the car, turning it off. “Scoot out, girl.”

I laughed, opened the door, got out, and moved the seat so Molly could follow. Drew moved his own seat so he could get the pizzas, and I reached in to grab my purse from the back. Sure, my purse contained some of the standard contents: a wallet, my house keys, some small bit of make-up, etc., but it also contained a lot more useful things like some chalk, a couple candles, a knife, and my wand. My wand was pretty special to me. I made it before I made the gloves I wore, and in a lot of ways it was actually more versatile than the gloves. The wand helps me focus for more types of magic than the gloves, dipping into illusion, a bit of geomancy, and some other things as well. I wasn’t really all that great with those other things, and geomancy was a little iffy too, but my illusions were nothing compared to Molly’s. Unless we worked together. Together we managed to be better than apart, but it was easier to do separate things when apart.

We walked into an alleyway that seemed mostly clear of snow and people, and Molly and I started setting things up. I drew the circle on the ground in chalk, Molly set out one of the pizzas, and Drew more or less stood watch. Once the pizza was placed in the circle’s center, I pricked my thumb, and I let some of my blood drip into the sauce of the pie. Molly did the same, and we turned to Drew.

“Hey, you’ll want to keep those boxes closed for now. Toot can’t take the pizza directly from you, but he might try to trick you into giving them to him,” I said.

“Right, so okay. What’s going on here?” Drew asked. “I get the circle, that’s for containing energy, right?”

“More or less,” I said. “The circle’s going to—”

“—be the key thing that traps Toot,” said Molly. “When he goes for the pizza—”

“—our blood will be charged by his magic, shutting the circle around him.” I gestured at the circle. “And then we can bargain for his help.”

“Harry does this sort of thing all the time,” Molly said.

“Right. And pizza as a lure?” Drew asked.

“Fairies like it.” We shrugged and turned toward the circle. This really was going to be tricky without Toot-Toot’s real name, but we knew what Harry called him. We knew what he was forming or perhaps had formed by now, and we knew what he was going to be identifying with at some point. So, we started whispering an invitation, pumping out power and mentioning the pizza. _Toot-Toot Minimus, come. Toot-Toot Minimus, there is pizza here, come…_

After about five minutes of this, Drew spoke up, “Is it supposed to take this long?”

“Not… exactly…” Pursing our lips, we thought for a second. Maybe we just hadn’t been able to get the fairy’s attention and—

What looked like a floating red light dipped down from above, floating and blinking as it descended. The light paused in mid-air at one point, hovering above where the pizza was, before blinking like crazy and descending upon the pizza within the circle. The light’s size was maybe just a bit bigger than an ant, and if we hadn’t been looking, we might have missed it. We looked toward the pizza, and within the scarlet light that had landed upon it was a tiny, barely visible woman with wings that were reminiscent of a dragonfly’s. What happened next… wasn’t something we’d soon forget. The fairy tore into the pizza, becoming a blur of red light as the pizza itself rose off the ground and started to disappear.

Drew whispered, “It’s… like an LED…”

The feeding stopped, and the rest of the pizza dropped, but not before the circle around the pizza closed tight. The red light shone brighter as it slammed against the invisible walls that held it in. We frowned. This fairy was not the one that we wished to lure, but… wasn’t Harry helped by a small LED-like fairy at some point? We seemed to recall Billy Borden mentioning that, and that the little fairy led the Harry and him to the entrance to Undertown.

We approached the edge of the circle, and the fairy stopped, floating in midair beyond the circle. What was her name? “Elidee, right?”

The light on the fairy blinked in response. Oh, please don’t say that she couldn’t actually talk. Well, it might have been that she could, but her voice was too small for us to actually hear something.

“Okay, let’s try it this way. Please blink once if your name is Elidee, twice if it isn’t.” One blink. “Okay, Elidee, since you probably can’t actually talk with us, let’s make this a bit simple. We’ll ask yes or no questions, and you answer with a single blink for yes, and a double blink for no. Is that all right?”

She blinked once. Good, we’d be able to communicate, and hopefully she’d be able to talk properly eventually. We weren’t going to hold out hope there yet.

“I guess the first question is: do you know Toot-Toot Minimus?” One blink. She couldn’t lie, and if we asked the right questions, we might have been able to get something done. “Do you know where he is?” Two blinks. “If you were out of the circle, could you find him?” One blink. “If we were to let you out of the circle, would you find him?” One blink and what looked like the start of a second but it aborted itself.

Ah, there it was. Things were starting to pull together. We’d make her an offer that’d benefit us. Plus, she could have a bit more pizza if she wanted.

“Okay, Elidee. We’ll let you out, but you need to do something for us when we do, do you understand?” One blink. “Okay, we’d like you to go get Toot-Toot for us. In exchange, we’ll let you out and have some more pizza when you get back. Do you agree to that?” One blink, and then after a few more seconds, she started blinking like crazy.

We approached the circle and we nudged some of the chalk aside, breaking it. The little fairy’s red light shot off in an upward direction and toward what we thought was the direction the park was in. Yeah, that sounded right.

“So, that _wasn’t_ the fairy that you wanted to talk to,” Drew observed. “She seemed to like the pizza.”

“They do that,” we said. “We think, anyway. Hopefully it’s _just_ Toot-Toot that shows up. We’re not sure that we have enough pizza for more than just him.”

“We have five more pies. How much could these tiny fairies eat?”

“You really want to know?” We asked, alternating.

“What, this isn’t like crack or something for fairies is it?”

We looked toward the circle, where the remains of outer pizza crust laid.

“Is it?” Drew pressed again, following our gaze. “… So we’re feeding a fairy addiction.”

“Maybe,” we said. “But… it’s pizza.”

Drew shook his head. “Almost seems wrong. Shameful even.”

A red streak caught our eyes again, but Elidee was being followed by a group of larger lights, and at the lead was a soccer ball-sized blue light. As the lights approached, they paused.

“Hold, men!” A high-pitched voice ordered. “Ten Huts! Ten Huts!”

The lead light came to the ground near the circle and the light faded, revealing an eight-inch tall male fairy. He was a slim athletic youth with a shock of lavender-colored hair buried under a helmet made from the cap of a 3-liter Coke bottle; his facial features were practically perfect, echoing the splendor found in the Sidhe lords of the fae. His glittering dragonfly-like wings stuck out the back of a cuirass made from a re-shaped Pepto-Bismol bottle. At his waist he wore an orange box-cutting knife on one side and on the other, he had a long nail wrapped in tape and sheathed in a pen casing. We weren’t sure where he got the boots he wore from, but they looked like something found off of one of Amanda’s dolls.

Elidee floated near him, and seemed to gesture in our direction. The lights above still hovered there, the fairies unmoving. We weren’t staring at the tiny fairy, honest, but he did look strange. It was definitely one thing to read and hear about this happening and another thing entirely to see it in person. Toot-Toot Minimus, lead fairy of the Za-Lord’s Guard approached us.

“Hail, humans! Elidee says you offer pizza…” Toot-Toot then looked at us seriously, and he drew his box-cutter. “But we serve the Za-Lord! We don’t serve Winter, nor will we want to! Pizza or Death!”

“Pizza or Death!” Echoed the tiny voices of the fairies above, and Toot-Toot started _walking_ toward us, box-cutter in hand. Oh. This was different.

***************

Molly and I separated, spreading out slowly in different directions as Toot-Toot approached. What had he seen in us? Why did he immediately associate us with Winter, and why threaten to attack? He and his squad of fairies weren’t actually attacking yet, they were just approaching, chanting their declaration for pizza. I couldn’t think of any reason that they’d associate Molly or I with Winter, unless simply summoning Mab today caused a bit of her Winter-ness to rub off on us. Maybe the kiss as well, but there really wasn’t more to it. Still, neither my sister nor I were aligned with Winter, and we’d need to tell that to the approaching wyldfae.

“Wait!” I held up my hands, fingers splayed apart in a halting gesture. “Toot-Toot Minimus, we’re not wanting you to serve Winter.”

“Yeah,” Molly added. “We’re Harry’s apprentices, and you know how much he doesn’t like the Winter fae.”

Toot paused, seeming to consider for a second. “Apprentices of the Za-Lord? First Class Privy!”

Elidee blinked, alighting herself between Toot and me. The light around her flared brighter and off as the larger pixie in front of her appeared to be listening.

“Are you sure, Privy Elidee?” Toot asked, looking first at the small fairy and then at me. “Not really aligned with Winter? Za-Lord’s apprentices? They’re _learning_ from him?”

Elidee blinked her light once at each question, and she seemed to be talking more. I decided to try something. I Listened.

Normally Listening lets me hear things far away or clearly within a specific area, but I’d never quite managed to try to Listen to something as small as Elidee was. Given her size, I doubted she had the ability to make a loud enough sound that she could be heard by normal people, and she certainly couldn’t lift the box cutter that Toot was holding. Still, as I focused, a voice started to become clear.

“—and they brought lots and lots of pizza, Sir Toot! Just look at the big dark one! He must have miles of pizza for us!” The voice was soft and feminine, but high pitched and childlike. She reminded me of a blend between Amanda and Hobbit’s voices, young and curious. “She’s not with Winter! And she serves our Lord! Look, his symbol is around her neck! Both of her necks!”

Toot looked at Molly and then at me, and then he turned to look at Drew. I chose not to say anything, and Molly ever so slightly adjusted her necklace so that the pentagram was visible. She hadn’t heard what Elidee had said, not really anyway, but it wasn’t all that hard for me to relay it to her. I did the same. Toot studied us some more, the pixie seeming to come to a conclusion.

“Okay! Apologies, misses. First Class Privy Elidee is right.” Toot bowed his head slightly, and his “helmet” started to slip forward. He quickly adjusted it as he rose. “You have the feel of Winter, but the Za-Lord did too one time.”

“Ah, thank you for the apology, Toot-Toot,” I said, releasing my Listening focus so he wouldn’t be very loud. “We had wanted to bargain with you for your help, offering pizza for you and your… friends.”

I suppose I was impressed with Toot. He knew we had the pizza to begin with, given that Elidee had likely told him, and he hadn’t actually attacked us, despite the visible threat. Of course, if he had and we’d been forced to defend ourselves, we’d have just knocked them out. I might not have been confident about my skill at handling ghouls—given that I’d apparently only stunned Muttley—but I was pretty sure I could handle a group of pixies with a simple application of evocation.

“We might be able to work something out…” Toot said.

“We’ve got five more pizzas here,” Molly said. “You and your friends can have them, if you can help us with what we want.”

A hush went over the assembled fairies, and Molly and I felt it more than heard, they wanted the pizza. Oh man, they wanted it _badly_.

“Five… pizzas…?” Toot clearly tried not to salivate. “Ma’am! The Za-Lord’s Guard stands ready to help! Ma’am!”

“Was anyone near the downtown police station last night, and did they see where the ghouls that attacked it ended up going?” I asked.

“The pleaze station?” Toot-Toot asked, seemingly confused.

Molly slipped her right-hand wand out of her jacket, and she gave it a wave, producing an image of a uniformed police officer. My sister was much better than I was with illusion though I was no slouch, and she more quickly thought of it. “The place where people dressed like this come in and out of. Last night they were attacked by ghouls at the one downtown. At least eight of them were there.”

Toot looked close at the image, recognition seeming to come to his eyes. However, then he said, “I haven’t seen anyth—”

Elidee floated up and started blinking like crazy. Since I wasn’t focused on trying to hear her, I couldn’t make out what she was saying at all, but I assumed it was something related to what I’d asked about and Molly had shown. The tiny pixie seemed to really be energetic about this, explaining in what looked like great detail what she must have seen.

“… does she know?” I asked.

“A tease! A tease! First Class Privy, calm down, ten huts!” Toot turned back to me, after mangling what must have been some variation on “at ease” at Elidee. “First Class Privy Elidee says she’s seen where your furry biters have gone. She can lead you to them!”

“Very good, Toot-Toot of the Za-Lord’s guard!” I said approvingly, but I glanced to my sister. _We actually_ _ **caught**_ _the fairy that can help us in our trap and we sent her for this guy._

Molly shrugged. _They’re kind of cute, and we do have way too much pizza for just her anyway._

“Now you said pizza!” Toot-Toot said. “First Class Privy—no, Corpse Oral Elidee will help you find the furry biters, so we need payment!”

Oh my God. I couldn’t be certain, but I thought I saw the tiny fairy actually give a salute upon her promotion from her previous rank. Right, the pizza though. We needed to actually feed these wyldfae their pay, and God, I hoped the pizza hadn’t gotten cold yet. I knew that they preferred it warm.

“Drew,” I said to my friend, gesturing at the pizzas. “Lay the boxes down and back away.”

“Okay,” Drew said, doing so, and he approached my side. “So, what now?”

“Za-Lord’s Guard!” Toot-Toot called out. “Pizza!”

“That, I guess,” I said as a nimbus of blue light formed around the pixie we negotiated with and he dove at the pizza boxes. The group of maybe fifteen more lights, each wielding an orange box cutter, descended upon the pizza boxes, tearing the boxes open and revealing the pies within.

Molly approached my other side. “It’s almost like watching a nature documentary, isn’t it?”

“Of the Amazon?” I asked, unable to look away from the feeding frenzy.

“Like piranha as they strip the flesh off a cow...” Drew added. “Okay, this is one _hell_ of an addiction. Where are they going to put it all?”

“Uh…” I paused. “Fuck if I know.”

“ _Fai_ ,” Molly scolded.

“Okay. Frak if I know,” I said.

“You don’t even like _Galactica_ ,” Drew said. “Wow, they’re already on the fifth box.”

Not long after Drew commented, the pixies had all finished, and they were clearly bloated as they laid down in the pizza boxes. Toot’s stomach alone pushed out his Pepto-breastplate at least half an inch from his body. The other pixies weren’t in much better, and some had assumed shapes that a theoretical physicist would love. _Assume a spherical pixie._

Molly snorted and barely covered a giggle.

“What?” Drew asked, and then looked at the two of us. “Do I really want to know?”

“It was a little… well, probably rude,” I said, and then I looked over the group. “Elidee?”

The tiny fairy pushed herself off the ground and the scarlet diode-like light appeared around her as she managed to overcome her increased mass somehow, maybe shunting it to her light or something. At least it didn’t end up turning into glitter or something messy like that, but I think fairy dust was a Disney only thing. I just couldn’t help but remember reading something about fairies and glitter and magic being related… It probably wasn’t relevant to here though.

Elidee floated over and landed lightly on my glove, carefully avoiding the circle that I’d inscribed on it. Now that the diminutive fairy was close, I could actually see her. Given that she was the size of a leafcutter ant; this wasn’t exactly an easy thing to do from afar. She had shoulder-length fuchsia hair draped over her bare shoulders. Her face, much like Toot’s, echoed the perfection of the Sidhe, and her lips seemed to be painted with some variant of a scarlet lipstick. I couldn’t quite make out the color of the pixie’s eyes, but I did note that she wasn’t completely nude, but instead wore a bikini that looked to be made of spider webbing. She smiled up at me from her perch, and she blinked her red glow.

“Guess you’re ready to go,” I said. “Right, Elidee?”

She blinked once. Good that she remembered; it made me happy. Then I realized that Elidee probably couldn’t lead the car, given what she was. She probably would just lead the way directly to where the ghouls were staying.

Molly must have realized it too as she said, “Drew, how long did you pay for that parking?”

“Not that long,” he said. “Why?”

“You can’t come with us here, then,” I said. “Elidee can’t lead a car given her size and how she works.”

“But you two…” Drew said, looking at me. “You two don’t have cell phones since they don’t work for you. How am I supposed to back you up if I’m not coming with?”

I bit my lip for a second as I thought. I really didn’t want Drew getting into danger if it could be avoided, and him staying with the car made some sense. What if there was a way to allow him to stay with the car and out of danger but also able to come quickly to our aid if we needed him? I had an idea.

“Molly, you still carry that notepad in your purse?” I asked as I pulled chalk out of mine, drawing a circle around me.

“Yes, why?” Molly’s apprehension flowed to me, but I sent some reassurance. She pulled the pad out though.

“I’ve got an idea as to how we can get Drew to where we’ll be.” I held out my hand and she gave it to me.

“Yeah, what?” Drew asked.

“Distance writing,” I said, and I glanced to the fairy on my hand. “Elidee, please go sit on my sister for a second. I don’t know if you’d interfere with this spell or not.”

The red pixie floated over to Molly and alighted on her hair, giving her the appearance of a spot of red dye before the fairy’s light faded out. It didn’t look terrible, actually.

I closed the circle, and I gathered my will. This was a sort of simplistic thaumaturgy, empowering a link that already existed between the pad and the papers within it. The basic idea here was similar to how carbon paper worked. Whatever would be written on the pad when we had it would be copied onto the sheet of paper that Drew would have. The enchantment wouldn’t last overly long; it’d break by the next sunrise, but we didn’t need it to last that long. We just needed it to last long enough that Drew could get the address we were at and make it to us in the Ex Machina.

I finished empowering the spell’s form, and I finished the enchantment properly by tearing out the second page of the notepad before breaking the circle. I put the second page between my ring finger and pinky as I pulled a pen out of my purse and scribbled lightly on the top of the notepad. The scribbles echoed on the top of the separated page, and I grinned.

“Here you go, Drew,” I said, handing him the page. “Watch for an address to appear on that, or a street corner or something. That’s where we’ll be.”

“Gotcha,” Drew said. “Stay safe, you two. I’ll get there as soon as I can once I have the address.”

I smiled and hugged my friend. “We will.”

“Yeah, I’ll make sure she is,” Molly said. “We’ll put down the address as soon as we’re there.”

Drew nodded, returning my hug. He ran a hand down the back of my head for a second, but then we both broke away. “See you soon.”

We waved to Drew as he headed toward the car, and I looked toward the pizza boxes. Somehow while I was casting, the Za-Lord’s Guard had managed to slip away, but then, the Wee Folk tended to be able to do that and not be seen unless they wanted to be or were careless.

“All right,” I said. “Lead on, Elidee. We need to find those—”

“—ghouls and where they went.” Molly smiled as the fairy floated off of her. Guess it was time to follow the red light.

  



	13. Chapter 13

Not for the first time, I was thankful that I had been somewhat successful as a gymnast when I was younger. Sure Molly and I were definitely way too tall to be anything close to Olympic class, but the flexibility that we’d managed to develop combined with the athleticism that we kept up allowed us to follow Elidee through her pixie’s eye direction toward wherever the ghouls ended up. We traveled across two streets, up one fire escape, across the rooftop of a building onto the rooftop of another building, and down another fire escape as we followed. When we jumped across the small gap between the two buildings we crossed, I suppressed an urge to yell out something that I knew Harry’d probably yell, and instead I just rolled when we hit the other side.

Molly looked to me and shook her head. _Really?_

_Close enough,_ I shrugged as I slid down the fire escape, my sister shortly following me. _I didn’t yell though._

_Out loud._ Molly scoffed as we looked for where Elidee was leading next. Down one more alleyway, and up another fire escape only to slide down the other side of the building. Elidee then stopped in front of us, and flew forward several feet before flying back. When I looked close at the tiny fairy, I could tell that she was pointing at the building across the way, more specifically its side. Across the street was a tall warehouse, likely abandoned a few years back as it had sunk far enough into the muck that even its Chicago Entrance was half-buried in the street. City planning likely hadn’t gotten around to just leveling the place yet, but the warehouse likely made a perfect place for anyone unsavory to hide and do business. Or, perhaps, it was more than that.

“Elidee, is that it?” I asked, to receive one blink from the pixie. “Are they inside the warehouse?” Two blinks. “But this is where they went last night?” One blink, and then another one, but slower. “They went here but didn’t go into the warehouse then?” One blink.

“So if they didn’t go into the warehouse, did they go in somewhere else nearby?” Molly asked, receiving a blink. “Somewhere that can be reached from here?” One blink.

… Oh Hell’s bells. It couldn’t be where I was thinking it was going to be. Except it totally could. Where else would a bunch of monsters hide?

“They’re in Undertown, aren’t they?” I asked, and Elidee blinked once. “They went through an entrance that’s somewhere on that warehouse.” Another blink.

“I hate Undertown,” Molly said, and I agreed with her. The first time we’d encountered the place, we’d found Maeve while hunting down the book that Cecelia ended up having. We ended up getting in a fight with a fae construct in the form of the Bandersnatch from Carroll’s _Alice_ series. The less that’s said about the second and third encounters with Undertown, the better, but they weren’t any more fun than the first. Having to cancel a date because you’re drenched with ectoplasm and ichor? Never a good sign. I liked that shirt too… At least Mom had been understanding that day though I think Harry might have had a different opinion about that.

“Right,” I pulled the notepad out of my purse and noted down the nearest street corner so that Drew would know where to meet us. “Thank you, Elidee. You’ve been helpful.”

It took a little focusing, but I could see her smile as she approached and settled on my head. I guess she wanted to make sure that her pizza source didn’t completely disappear on her. Maybe this was a part of being a member of the Za-Lord’s Guard or something.

“So, you think we should go in there?” Molly asked. “You know what’s down there.”

“Yeah,” I said. “But if we don’t go down and at least look, then maybe a killer gets away with it.”

“What about Lieutenant Murphy? Should we call her?”

“She told us to stay away from the case. After we verify the ghouls are down there, I think we should probably call Thomas.” I looked to where the sun hung in the sky. It was still early in the afternoon, but given the time of year, the sun would set early. The ghouls couldn’t go around as easily in the daytime as at night, but they weren’t like some vampires. Sunlight wouldn’t kill them. And… God, I really didn’t want to go down there. The memory of what I Saw from them alone… I shivered. These two weren’t as hotheaded as Muttley.

Molly wrapped an arm around my shoulder, and I returned the gesture. “You going to be okay with this?”

“I’ll have to be,” I said. “You too, though. You good to veil us both, or should we…?”

“I’ll do it.” Molly lightly tugged at my hair. “We’re not going in to fight, and we—”

“—can get out together as needed.” I wasn’t sure how much I believed that we wouldn’t actually get in a fight in Undertown given our past record, but I knew that we’d do what we could to actively avoid one. Hopefully the ghouls wouldn’t even be down there, and there’d just be evidence of something that they planned to do next. Whatever it was, we needed to find something, anything we could go on if someone were to actually be helping us properly. Maybe Thomas was having some sort of luck on his end of the investigation, or maybe… Nah. “Ready?”

Molly nodded, sliding her hand off of my shoulder and into my own. Making a few motions with her hand and muttering under her breath for a second, she cast her veil. _“Sfumare._ ”

We faded from view fairly quickly, blending into the background perfectly. Molly’d even remembered to hide the footprints we made in the snow this time, and I subtly used a little bit of telekinesis to make sure that the snow actually ended up matching what Molly was showing as we moved forward. Veils were just another sort of illusion, and Molly took to those the way I took to enchantment and a bit of evocation. Molly still had some issues moving around various elements; Hell, I did too, but when it came to hiding things or making things appear that weren’t there? I’d trust Molly’s ability over my own, even if I was a bit better than Harry in it. The only veils I knew of that were better than Molly’s alone were the ones we did when we worked together in unison. Combining that with our kinetomancy was an eventual goal, but we hadn’t quite managed to pull it off yet.

Molly and I made our way across the street unseen, thankful that the traffic on this street was fairly light for this time of day. When we got to the wall of the warehouse, I could feel Elidee’s apprehension. The entrance must have been around here somewhere, and I doubted that the tiny fairy truly liked Undertown. It must have been awkward for something like her due to both her size and the fact that she was a dewdrop fairy. Pixies weren’t exactly the most… appreciated of the wyldfae, and they often tended to be captured by other beings for sport or worse. In fact, I vaguely remembered something about the White Court and wyldfae, but I couldn’t for the life of me put my finger on it. Lara probably would do something with them or something. It seemed like something she’d be capable of.

Ah, there. The doorway was inlaid in the bricks. Odds were it had been an actual entrance to a cellar or something at one point that had gotten bricked up, but some supernatural being felt that this would be a perfect entrance or exit to Undertown and they’d unearthed it. Yes, I just needed to push the brick in… _here_. The bricks in the side of the building moved aside, one right after the other. It was almost like watching a game of Tetris, or perhaps like I imagined the entrance to Diagon Alley would be in the Harry Potter books, only instead of going into a realm of mystical wonder, we were about to head into a place full of dark and spooky things. I supposed if one were to get technical, both were places of mystical wonder, but the former was more whimsical, while the latter was far more deadly.

_Point of order,_ I sent to my sister. _Undertown is dark. We’re veiled. Any sort of actual light can’t come from us or it negates the purpose._

_Hmm… Can’t you adjust your perception, Fai?_

_I’ve never attempted for how dark Undertown is. I suppose I can try._ One benefit to altering perception was that you could increase the perception of your eyes and how well they managed to handle ambient light. Most animals that had good night vision had the ability to use ambient light, even low light, to adjust how they saw. This is the reason that you tend to see the reflections of cat’s eyes at night, no matter how dark it is around them. Their eyes are literally built to catch light and reflect it properly, allowing them to see and catch their prey. This was also the reason that most things that could actually see well in the dark had large pupils, to allow the most light in possible. I was going to cheat. Magic should allow me to do that. _I’ll wait till we’re actually down there for the best possible effect._ [size=1][color=transparent]Thump-thump, thump-thump[/color][/size]

I could feel Molly’s smile, and she nodded. Ahead of us was a stairway down, wide enough for us to walk side-by-side. If we were lucky, wherever the ghouls were staying wasn’t that far, and we’d be able to avoid running into other things that were in the depths of Undertown. If we were luckier, there would be some indication of who hired them, and we’d be able to find out just what they were after with the Erlking book. I mean, honestly, given that I was pretty sure that I’d seen a copy or two of the book before, somewhere, it was entirely possible that them grabbing the Erlking book was a ruse of some sort. Admittedly, it was an elaborate one at that, but I didn’t know how ghouls’ minds worked, nor did I want to know how those flesh-eating creatures did. I just wanted to know _why_. Why bother attempting to steal a copy if you could buy it elsewhere? Was there something special about the copy that Maroni had owned? Thump-thump, thump-thump

We descended the stairway for a bit, descending what must have been two stories, back and forth before we came to the bottom, a wood-floored cellar that must have once belonged to the warehouse above. The cellar was lit with what looked to be some sort of glowing lichen growing on the stone walls, and in some of them, there were cracks, in others, holes that led to tunnels. The cellar was connected to Undertown, but it wasn’t directly a part of the subterranean city. The lichen extended into one of the tunnels, and in an unspoken agreement, my sister and I followed the glowing plant. There was no way it was natural in any manner. Thump-thump, thump-thump

When we were about a quarter mile down the lichen-lined tunnel, I suddenly pulled Molly’s hand, and we stepped to the side of the tunnel. A break in the tunnel was up ahead, a corner, really, and I could hear movement beyond it. Familiar movement, and the haunting sound of claws touching stone. The room beyond had _something_ in it, and from the energies that I felt, the energies seemed to match the ones from the ghouls of last night. Which meant they were here. There were three more energy sources in that room as well, and while two felt like they were humans of some sort, there was a sickening feeling coming from both of them. The third’s energy felt like it was some sort of concentrated version of the energies I felt from the other two, but that wasn’t what made me stop my sister. Thump-thump, thump-thump

What made me stop Molly, was what else I heard from that room. The noise was unmistakable. _**Thump-thump, thump-thump**_. It was clear.

_I could hear the drums._

  



	14. Chapter Fourteen

Drums. Magic. Magic and drums. And ghouls, let’s not forget the ghouls. No. Ghouls unimportant. Black magic important. One more thing. God, I needed to stop watching Jackie Chan reruns, and I needed to focus. Okay. There were drums beating up ahead in the room with the ghouls, thumping rhythmically. What kinds of magic did I know of that used drums? Well, one would obviously be some sort of ritual magic, but that couldn’t be it. There wouldn’t be a need for a ritual that had drums going this rhythmically. It had to be something else. What it was, I just couldn’t put my finger on, but I knew that I knew it.

_Necromancy._ Molly sent to me. Maintaining the illusion that we weren’t actually there became all the more important if there was a necromancer in the next room. Drums and necromancy were intrinsically intertwined. Something about drums echoing the heartbeat of the living. Drums allowed a necromancer to either keep the dead animated or under their control or something of the like. I couldn’t really remember much as, well, it wasn’t really a subject Harry would bring up. Necromancy was _deep_ black magic. I remembered… oh. Oh shit. There were only a few necromancers that I could remember from the book series, and none of them were beings that we wanted to mess with. The Heirs to some K-named bigshot that took the Council fifteen tries to kill him before they finally managed to blow him up with some major bomb event. And they still weren’t sure the guy was actually dead. Lord, I prayed that the man actually was and the necromancer in the other room had nothing to do with his heirs, but given that there were ghouls and they were after the songs of the Erlking… I honestly didn’t know what was going on, and… Fuck. Empty fucking night.

_Molly, we need to get out of here. We know where they are. We need… we need muscle._ I felt my hand trembling where it was intertwined with her own. We just needed to leave. Get Thomas. Hell. Call Marcone. Get Gard as backup. Get Harry. Get Murphy. Get fucking Lara. We had necromancers. Chicago was going to go to Hell in a handbasket, if any sort of major necromancers were here and active, and oh God it was too soon. Harry wasn’t here, and he wasn’t ready to animate Sue. I didn’t have the control or power to animate a dinosaur, even if it’d be cool to ride, and I didn’t have the leeway with the Council to pull it off and not get my head chopped off. Bob. Bob could help, but I didn’t want to ask him about necromancy and Mister K-named bigshot because I didn’t want to trigger any crazy memories that he might have somewhere in that mind of his. I didn’t want to trigger any evil personalities, and… oh God, we needed to get out of there.

_Focus. We need to find out what’s going on in there. Then we can get out._

_Necromancers, Moll. And ghouls. And God knows what else. We’re fucked. Worse than fucked. We need Harry. We need someone. Going this alone is suicide._

_We’re under a veil. A pretty good one if I do say so myself._ Molly wanted to go in further. I swallowed as quietly as I could. _We need the information. You can get us out quick, right?_

I supposed that my fear was an excellent motivator and source that I could use for my casting if it came to that. _Yeah. But it’s not like we’re going to come across them discussing their plans or anything._

I felt Molly’s grin as she squeezed my hand. _Never know._

We approached the corner, and we paused at its edge, looking around it carefully. While we were under a veil, there really wasn’t any need to take chances in case the veil dropped. Normal stealth measures were important too. Around the corner was what appeared to maybe have once been a meat locker. Hooks with long-dead emaciated carcasses of animals hung from them were spread out throughout the room, but what drew the eye were the two ghouls from last night and the three other figures in the room. The ghouls looked much the same as the night before; they even wore the same clothing, whereas the other figures in the room were human. Well, human-ish, anyway. It was hard to tell just how human they were from this distance, when the energies they gave out were so sickening.

The taller one on the right, judging from his visible hands holding drumsticks that pounded upon the marching drum hanging around his neck, was likely a fairly young man, but his face and the rest of his body were obscured by a hooded black cloak. The cloak itself wasn’t all that elaborate, clearly just some sort of black canvas cloth formed into a cloak. He stood at just over six feet tall, and the man underneath the cloak could have been anywhere from his early twenties to his early thirties, as his hands were unwrinkled. Given that he had magic, it was entirely possible that he could have been older, but I was fairly confident about my age assessment of the drummer.

“What do you mean, you want more payment?” The voice came from the drummer’s… partner, for lack of a better term. She was obviously a woman, but I couldn’t make any features out from behind her hood save for a single strand of dark hair. Her voice held the faint lilt of a Scottish brogue, but it mostly sounded American. She was probably just shy of five and a half feet tall, but from the way the ghouls were cowering from her, she was the person of power. Within her right hand, she held a blackened wood blank for a staff, and her left was empty. She wore a similar cloak to her partner. “You didn’t complete the job I paid you for in the first place.”

“There were complications,” said the ghoul on the left, whose muzzle reminded me of a wolverine. It was less pronounced and not dripping with viscera the way my… No, push away the Sight memories, Faith. “A wizard was at the station.”

“Not Dresden?” Why did she have to sound hot? Why couldn’t she have sounded like a cackling madwoman or something? Some crone, or some evil Disney Queen or something? No, she had to sound hot. The cloak hid too much of her body for me to judge it.

Molly squeezed my hand, and my attention was drawn to the third figure. This figure wasn’t cloaked at all. No instead, he stood there behind the woman and the man, breathing and looking over the room with glazed over eyes. His skin was a sickly pallor and in parts appeared to be falling off. _Zombie_.

“No, not that wizard. A girl. Young. Talented with lightning,” the ghoul said, bowing slightly. “We did not get paid to deal with wizards, just mortals.”

“Dresden is in the Ozarks, dealing with a gnoll uprising. You should have had no trouble,” the necromancer said. “It should have been as simple as entering the station and removing the evidence from the locker. I even _gave_ you a way to keep the police occupied.”

“There was a wizard. Fee is higher.” The ghoul let out a low growl, and I shivered.

“And Jackal got himself killed. Fee is double,” added the second ghoul.

The necromancer laughed at this point. “You failed to grab what you were assigned to grab, and you think that you deserve _more_ pay?”

The ghouls growled at her laughter. Or maybe they just growled. Either way they weren’t happy.

“Here’s what’s going to happen.” The necromancer gestured at the ghouls. I wish I knew who she was. I couldn’t tell, and oh God, that frightened me worse. She could have been any of them. Or someone else entirely. “You will find me Maroni’s copy of _Die Lied der Erlking_. You will bring it to me, or I will flay the flesh from your bones and feed it to my pets. If it is another copy of the same book, I will know. Are we perfectly clear?”

The ghouls growled again at her, and I shuddered, bumping into the wall. A brick must have been loose or something as it fell out of the wall and shattered upon impact with the ground. Five heads turned toward us. Ah. Shit. That wasn’t good. Luckily we were still under a veil, and Molly had the endurance to keep us up for a bit longer.

“Must have been a rat,” commented the drummer, even as he kept playing. His voice wasn’t terrible either.

“Undertown doesn’t have rats,” the necromancer commented. “It has any number of supernatural creatures, but it does not have rats. Unless they are hiding.”

… _Shit. Molly I’m going to get us out of here,_ _ **now**_ _._ I started to prepare my spell. I just needed the mental focus. I had plenty of fear to ball up and use to run the fuck away, but I needed to have Molly able to come with me, which meant I needed to focus on it. Usually this wouldn’t be a large issue, but it turns out that trying to come into focus while afraid is not the easiest thing in the world.

_Good… Not too sure how much longer I can hold this up._ While Molly had some pretty good endurance when it came to casting veils, she’d been holding this one fairly long. I knew she was nowhere near the peak amount she’d be able to do, but neither was I for that matter. The two of us together would be able to do some amazing things one day, assuming we managed to survive the next ten minutes.

“Come out, little rats,” the necromancer sing-songed. “We can discuss things like rational adults and you can be forgiven for eavesdropping. Of course, if you don’t… Lin, Po, find them.”

“Them?” The first ghoul turned toward the woman.

“It’s faint, but there are two sources of magic nearby. Find them. Alive or dead. I care not. I can ask my questions just as easily of the dead.”

_Anytime now, Fai._ I could feel Molly’s fear beginning to spike, and I drew upon it. God, I needed to focus, and I needed to pull this off. Even if we were planning on fighting these ghouls, this was their turf, and they had the advantage. They had magical artillery support in the form of the necromancer, and God knew how many zombies she’d be able to get under her control. Even one zombie was going to be an issue unless we got behind a threshold. Even then, there were things that could be done with zombies that I didn’t want to think about but might have had to.

_Almost there_. I balled up the fear tight, remembering the path we took to get in. My knees were going to be in such pain tomorrow, but better in pain than dead. My mind went over what needed to happen, and sparks lightly went off in my vision. Thankfully we were still veiled, but not for much longer. I could feel Molly’s control over it start to slip.

“There! It’s the wizard from last night!” The second ghoul pointed at us.

Shit. The veil! Luckily for us, I was ready. “Uh… Final Technique! _Soukotte!_ ”

Time slowed. We ran for it. We made it to the cellar, and it looked like we were home free. It was almost too easy as we started for the door.

Of course, it was at that point that things went to Hell.

  



	15. Chapter 15

I’ve mentioned before how my spell that I call _Soukotte_ works. It doesn’t actually slow time, and as such it doesn’t force anyone else to actually move slower. What it does is speed up mine and whomever I cast upon’s perception of time and enables acting within those timeframes. How quickly I can act and how long it lasts depends primarily on two things: the power that I’m able to put into the spell and whether I’m casting on myself alone or spreading it to someone else. If I had some more experience casting efficiently, or if Molly and I had cast the spell together, rather than putting the entire burden upon myself, we’d probably have made it down the lichen-lined hallway and out the cellar before the ghouls and necromancer had even had the chance to begin to chase us.

That’s not quite what happened. The world had slowed, sure, but as we moved, I could tell that we were moving slower than I was able to move at a fully powered cast. Given the lead we’d had on them when I cast the spell, we should have been able to make it out fine, but as we approached the stairs, one of the ghouls from the room behind us stepped in our way. Remembering how fast ghouls can move, and not ignoring the momentum that Molly and I’d built up, I pushed my sister to the side, out of the way of the ghoul’s readied claw. I dove to the opposite side, using my momentum to carry me forward, leaving the ghoul slashing the air at the speed of a Bengal tiger. Fuck. The spell had failed.

_Fai!_ Molly had managed to get to her feet, and I rolled to my own. The ghoul had managed to step between the two of us, and she was closer to the stairs. Good. At least one of us would be able to get out. The ghoul’s hunger was palpable in the air now that it was clearly pissed at _me_.

_Goal is to get out of here without being followed_. I sent to my sister, ducking a horizontal slash from the ghoul’s hooked claws. Such anger, and hunger… Molly felt it too. God… we needed to be able to fight this. It was easier in the police station, but with Molly here and not in safety… God… it was worse. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do much. I needed to wall myself a bit. Not feel the ghouls… but I needed to feel them.

“Wizard, I will flay you for what you did to Jackal,” growled the ghoul as it slashed again, cutting into my coat as I dodged, moving back away from Molly so she could have room to run. God, I really hated ghouls. Fucking ghouls. It always had to come back to them. And the fucking hunger from them. God… how did they live with it? “You will be delicious.

Oh. That’s how. To think I almost felt bad for a ghoul.

“He attacked me!” Oh, yes, what a smart response. Harry would be proud. Make him stop and think. Blame his dead friend for his death. Assuming they actually were friends. God… this just wasn’t right. It felt just wrong… and I could feel Molly’s… _We’re stronger than this, Moll!_

“Get away from her! _Sfukaze!_ ” After shaking her head, Molly slipped out her wand, reaching out into the floor with the spell and pulling a piece of it up on the ghoul’s left. With a flick of her wrist, the slab of wood swung forward into the ghoul, sending it sprawling to the side.

_Moll, get the fuck out of here!_ I sent, urgently shooing her away. Gah! Another presence made itself known, and I barely managed to vault forward in time, pushing off of my hand and flipping out of the way of the _second ghoul_. Fuck me. The ghoul followed up with another slash, and I splayed out my fingers, praying this would work. “ _Fusegi!_ ”

My shield popped into existence, shimmering a translucent silver, and I tried to replicate what Daddy had us working on this morning. I slammed my arm forward into the claws as they came, and they dug into the shield, moving through it as if it were molasses. I twirled left, around the claws, and my shield dropped. The claws shaved more off of my jacket, and they scraped at my skin, barely breaking the surface. I backed the fuck away, as quickly as I could, but the ghoul followed close. _Go!_

_I’m not leaving you here with them, Fai!_ Molly flicked her left arm out, bringing out a _second_ wand. When had she made that one? Wielding a wand in each hand, twirling them like they were six shooters, Molly stared down the ghouls. While my sister might not have had a lot of skill at manipulating most elements that were necessary for evocation, she could use force with the best of them, and she was by far the best illusionist that I knew. Harry probably suspected, but I knew that Molly had been grilling Bob on how to improve her illusions. She’d been improving by leaps and bounds, and I knew just how much she could be capable of. We just needed to survive this fight.

Not exactly something that would be easy with the way the second ghoul was coming at me, and I could see the first ghoul getting up. My shield would be next to useless here, so I turned away from the ghoul and ran. If the first ghoul were to team up with the second, I’d be dead, but it had gone after my sister, and from what I could see, she was doing much the same as me, quickly trying to keep away from the ghoul. Mom and Daddy’s lessons took hold, but Harry’s were the strongest: don’t let the bad guy get you.

“Die, wizard!” the ghouls cried in unison as we continued our running away, but they moved too quickly. It took every bit of my focus to not get hit by those claws, to keep out of range. Luckily the cellar wasn’t all too small, but the ghoul kept close. Fucking hell. It was _playing_ with me. That was the only explanation. I knew ghouls were faster than they were being. It wanted me scared. It wanted me terrified, and the ghoul on my sister was much of the same.

“God, get a new line already,” I said in an attempted taunt from what I thought was a safe distance, but the ghoul caught me by surprise and thrust its claws at my gut. Through what must have been extreme luck, I reacted, barely moving right so the claws scratched along my stomach instead. Fucking hell, that hurt. God. I needed to get away before it could follow up. I needed to… but _Soukotte_ took up too much energy and slowed things too much. I needed to move faster. Away from the ghoul. My mind _sparked_ , and I ran, faster than I had ever run before across the room, to its opposite side. The fuck? Fuck it. It hadn’t been too draining on my reserves, and I still felt a good amount of fear. Now it was do or die time, and I wasn’t about to die twice. Lightning might have been my best elemental attack, but what we needed was something a little more volatile. What we needed was the answer to a simple four-word question: what would Harry do? _Moll, keep backing away._

_Fai, how did you? What are you—oh… shit…_ The runes on my gloves started glowing, starting at blue, but they shifted to red. Molly clearly realized my plan as her eyes widened, and after dodging the next attack from her ghoul, she disappeared. She veiled. Good. Now, I wasn’t exactly good at using fire. Flames aren’t really all that easy to control and make do what you want them to do, and moving fire in large quantities seems to be a weakness that Molly and I share. Harry’s amazing with it. He’d have these two ghouls burned halfway to Hell and back and it’d just be another Tuesday for him. He could lance fire through them without breaking too much a sweat, but I couldn’t. It just wasn’t my specialty. My ability to create fire seemed limited to the amount and intensity necessary to light some candles.

What I could do, however, was create a volatile mixture of gasses, or something like them, and encase them in a ball of air. I could then encase, within the ball, a smaller ball full of flame that upon impacting a target would become exposed to the gasses and ignite them. It wasn’t quite as effective as Harry’s magical fire, but it was my own take, my attempt at being better. It didn’t take a lot out of me, and I could follow up with lightning if I wanted. Spreading my fingers, I prepared my spell. “ _Hinotama!”_

The fireballs formed in my hand, and I tossed one at each ghoul, directing them such that they exploded upon impact. When I say exploded, I mean they burst into a flash of flame and shockwave that pushed me back a little. Luckily my sister stayed in her veil. The flames from the ball flash-burned their fur and clothing, igniting some of it. Okay. While I like a good-sized explosion as much as the next girl, I really hadn’t intended on them being _that_ potent. I didn’t even know that I could make them that potent.

The ghouls howled, and I felt the wave of pain coming from them, wincing slightly at its intensity. The ghoul who had been on me blinked a couple times, growled and charged. God, I needed to get away. I didn’t know what I just did or how to repeat it, so I ran, straight into the other ghoul, turning to get out of its way. Unfortunately, it reacted to that, clamping down hard on my jacket with its jaws and it swung me around off the ground. The zipper on my jacket failed, sending me flying out of it at the wall. Just how strong were these things? I slammed into the wall, barely getting my arms up in time to protect myself, and God, that fucking hurt. Was I bleeding? Probably. I couldn’t tell where from, but the pain in my gut…

_Fai!_ Molly called out from wherever she was hiding, smartly keeping it quiet. _You okay?_

_Peachy_. I groaned, and sparks started rolling down my arms, tingling at the areas I bled. Fucking hell. I wasn’t just scared here. I was _pissed_. These ghouls didn’t know who they were messing with. I was Faith Carpenter. Sister to Molly Carpenter. Daughter of Michael and Charity Carpenter. Apprentice of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, and I was not going to die here. Oh yes. _Moll, I’ve got an idea._

I quickly relayed my idea to my sister as the ghoul who had grabbed me started to approach again. The sickening grin on its face meant it suspected I was nearly out. Why wouldn’t it? I was injured and on the ground. I was a quick and easy meal for it. Or so it thought, anyway. I staggered to my feet, steadying myself, and when the ghoul was close enough, I felt like laughing. “ _Fulmina!_ ”

I blasted the ghoul with lightning, but I turned up the intensity of the light. When it cleared, there were three of me standing there. Well, to be honest, the other two were a little off, but it was hard to tell in the low light setting. Molly would get better. I smirked, and my doubles echoed it. I ran forward, forcing myself to move despite the pain, and each of my doubles ran a different way. The discarded piece of wood from earlier rose from the ground, slamming into the ghoul I hadn’t zapped. God, there were two of them here. We needed to finish them before the necromancer arrived so we could get out. I hoped this idea would work.

Each of the ghouls seemed confused, possibly dazed by something, as they chased my doubles. Upon slashing through each of them, two more formed, dodging backward out of where the ghouls had slashed. My smirk widened into a grin, echoed on each of my doubles’ faces. This’d be perfect. I stopped near where Molly was hidden under her veil, giving her a slight nod, and she made more doubles. Each double moved into a position in the room before stopping in the same position I stood in. Ah. Okay, that explained the second wand. It let her manipulate all of them better. This only improved my plan. My sister was smart.

_Go ahead Fai, now._ I nodded at Molly’s encouragement. Phase two time.

“So, you really think you can stop us,” I said to the ghouls simultaneously with my doubles, shunting my pain to the back of my mind so I could do this. It was odd to hear that much of a reverberation, but not all that different from when Molly and I spoke together. “You can’t even imagine what we’re capable of.”

“Wizard, I will flay the meat from you and your clone’s bodies. I will feast upon it, and then I will give you to her. You’re so close to death already.” The ghoul punctuated this by slicing through one of the doubles with its claws. It took most of my willpower to not flinch, even though the double was on the alternate side of the room.

“Walk away,” I said. I needed to give this offer. I hated ghouls with a passion, but I needed to let them have the chance. “Walk away and leave Chicago. Find other hunting grounds.”

“We can’t do that, wizard. You and I have unfinished business,” the second ghoul said. He seemed less hotheaded than his partner. Its partner? He looked over my double, but I could see that his eyes weren’t focusing properly. “Hiding behind these illusions won’t save you.”

“Serving the necromancer is bad for your continued health,” I said. “Look at what happened to Muttley.”

“His name was _Jackal_ ,” growled the first one, and he sliced into another double. No wincing, Faith. Focus on the plan. “I will find you, wizard.”

“Not before I finish this spell…” I said, and I began to gather power. I doubted they knew the significance of what I was about to do, but it never hurt to be a little theatrical. “ _Tasogare yori mo kuraki mono.._ ”

“I will find you and slay you,” the ghoul said as it slashed through another double. Molly must have been letting them disappear after the failed slashes, but there’d be more.

“ _Chi no nagare yori akaki mono…_ ”

I continued gathering power as wind swept up around me and near each of my doubles. The second ghoul slashed at a double, causing it to disappear, but three more formed, one stepping out of me, and two more stepping out of two of the doubles on the other side of the room.

“ _Toki no nagare ni umoreshi…_ ”

Even more power came to me. Sparks ran up and down each of my arms, and I struggled not to wince at the pain. The sparks jumped down into a circle surrounding me, with a dark black aura forming around it. Each of the doubles had the same effects there. Each of the ghouls slashed through a double, but Molly made two more.

“ _Idainaru nanji no na ni oite... ware koko ni yami ni chikawan.”_

An even darker aura formed around me than the circle, and the ghouls shifted. I could still feel their anger, their hunger, but now it was tinged with nervousness. They tore through some more doubles as they approached my location. Good.

“ _Warera gam ae ni tachi fusagarishi subete no orokanaru mono ni…”_

More power, almost there. The aura deepened, and Molly made some more doubles, losing the veil to step in herself as a double. She disguised her wands as my gloves with the illusion. Good.

“ _Ware to nanji ga chikara mote hitoshiku horobi o ataen koto o…”_

The ghouls destroyed the two doubles right in front of me, but like I’d said. I’d had a plan. _Perfect_. I slammed both my hands together, and pulled them apart, letting the power I’d gathered coalesce between them.

“Now, normally, the actual finish to that incantation regards slaying dragons,” I said, trying to emulate Harry because thinking of this as like one of his plans was the only way I’d get through this sane. Faith Carpenter. Suuper Genius. “But I’d like to finish it another way. _Ramuh!_ ”

Rather than thrusting my hands at the ghouls, I thrust them straight up, dispelling the dark aura around me and revealing that the sparks were no fluke. A shroud of electricity had come up around me, and I channeled all of it into the spell, pushing it into the lichen that surrounded the room.

“That’s it, wizard? That’s your plan?” The first ghoul laughed and jumped forward at me, its claws nearly reaching. I _pulled_. Lightning leaped from one wall, through the first ghoul and into another wall. The ghoul’s momentum stopped, and it fell to the ground twitching. Thunder reverberated in the cellar, and the second ghoul warily stepped forward. Lightning flashed again, barely missing the ghoul, but the resulting thunderclap shook the room. The ghoul fell to its knees, and God, the pain. Fucking hell, I could feel it from both of them. I needed to wall it off, just like my own.

_Now!_ Molly grabbed my hand, and we took a breath. Elidee, whom we’d nearly forgotten, flew down into one of our shirts, seemingly unharmed. Thank God, but we needed to get going. We silently cast _Soukotte,_ and we used the increased perception and speed to make it out of the cellar and up the stairs into the street. The spell dropped, and we bent over, panting. Using that much magic so quickly took a lot out of us, and while we weren’t completely drained, it still was a lot to do in a short amount of time.

“Good help is _so_ hard to find these days,” a woman’s voice called down from the roof of the warehouse. It was the necromancer! Shi-oot! What were we going to do? Her cloak billowed in the breeze up there, and underneath was a dark robe. We still couldn’t quite make out what she looked like under it, definitely not with the sun setting behind her.

“Really, you’re going with that cliché?” we asked as we started to back away. We’d gotten lucky with the ghouls, with our injuries being mostly minor. Mostly. My/our gut needed attention soon. I/we pressed on it as we backed away. We were lucky that they hadn’t had a way to pierce illusions and that we’d guessed correctly about their biology. If either of those had been wrong, we’d probably be dead.

“Well, is it truly a cliché when it’s true?” she asked, and the drumming somehow grew louder. Empty night, what was she doing? Why was the drumming getting louder? “Where is my book, girls?”

“What book?” we asked. We knew which one she likely meant, but it never hurt to clarify.

“Pity. You would have made lovely gifts. Go!” The wall of the warehouse burst outward, and three… things… shambled out. Well, it started as shambling, anyway. Their flesh had already started rotting off, and their fur was matted with viscera, but they appeared, at least somewhat, given the claws, to have once been ghouls. Zombified ghouls. We started backing into the street, moving away from them as quickly as we could without outright running, but they started moving toward us, quicker than we could get away, far quicker than anything dead had the right to move. We didn’t have another casting of _Soukotte_ in us. We had no clue what we were going to do.

Then, in a flash, as the ghouls started into the street, we heard the crunching of metal on flesh, and then flesh impacting concrete. A blue ’76 Mustang convertible with its top down had slammed into the zombified ghouls at speed, sending them flying. Brakes screeched loudly, and the tires dug into the pavement as the convertible swung around in a drift so its side was toward us.

“Need a ride?” Drew asked with a smirk from the driver’s seat, and Molly and I jumped the side to get in. Well, Molly jumped, I more slid, belly first. I ended up in back with Molly up front next to Drew. Drew looked in the rear-view mirror, his smirk changing to worry as he looked at me.

“Punch it!” I ordered, looking back at the ghouls, and clutching at my stomach. “They’re getting up!”

Tires squealed as Drew burned out before getting up to speed, away from the zombie ghouls. There was just one issue that plagued us.

The zombies were _fast_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation of the spell:  
> Darkness beyond twilight  
> Crimson beyond blood that flows  
> Buried in the stream of time  
> Is where your power grows  
> In thy great name I pledge myself to darkness  
> Let the fools who oppose us be destroyed  
> By the power you and I possess  
> (Yes, it was the Dragon Slave incantation)


	16. Chapter Sixteen

If anyone had asked me before that day whether it was possible to make a ghoul into a zombie, I’d have scoffed at them. Of course, that really wasn’t a question that I’d expect to be asked at all, but were it to have actually come up, I’d have said there was no chance in Hell that anyone would be able to make ghouls into the undead. I didn’t think that they actually left enough of a body to do so when they died. At that moment, in the back seat of the Ex Machina, I’d wished that I’d been correct. I supposed it was a good thing that the necromancer had only used three. If she’d wanted to or had been especially vindictive, she could have sent a whole army of the undead against us, assuming she was one of those whom I thought she could be. If she was an apprentice of the Dread K-named Necromancer—let’s go with Kellogg; nice and menacing—then she had a whole lot of tricks she could be using on us, and we were way out of our depth. Hell, the ghoul zombies might have been a trick right out of Kellogg’s cookbook. Magical murderbeasts, just insert evil.

Kellogg’s Magical Murderbeasts (trademark pending) chased the car as Drew barreled down the Chicago streets. Somehow they managed to keep up, even though we were going faster than even a ghoul should have been able to run. We needed to get to an area that the ghouls wouldn’t chase us down, somewhere the necromancer wouldn’t dare to follow us into, but the question was where? Where could we escape these zombies?

“What the hell are those things?” Drew called out, as he looked in the rear mirror.

“Ghouls,” Molly replied, her voice steady and entirely too calm sounding for how she was feeling. I knew the adrenaline was pumping through her veins, causing her heart to pound. It was much the same with my own.

“Zombies!” I corrected, a little louder from my position in the back seat, looking over the trunk at them. God, they were _gaining_ on us. “Must go faster, Drew. Go faster!”

“Going, Fai!” Drew shifted gears and we sped up some more, putting a little more space between us and the zombie ghouls. He weaved around slower moving cars, but the ghouls did the same. “Where am I going, Fai?”

“I…” My heartbeat was so loud I could barely focus on anything else. Zombie ghouls. Zombie ghouls. Necromancer zombie ghouls. Even thinking of them as Kellogg’s Magical Murderbeasts couldn’t… God. They were real. They were there. Hell’s fucking bells, I just faced down _two_ ghouls and managed to muster up bravado, but put me in a car that’s being chased by zombie ghouls…. God, it was like I was eight again. Only Harry and Daddy’s sword weren’t here to protect me this time.

“Get on the highway, Drew and go two exits south,” Molly said. She then turned around in the passenger seat to face me. “Fai, _focus on my voice_. You’re not alone in this. I’m with you. Drew’s with you. We’re here together, but we’re going to need you to be able to help out. You know how to deal with zombies.”

I shook my head, staring back at the zombies as they chased us. God, they were just running on all fours. Claws dug into pavement. Teeth gnashed at air, and they just kept gaining momentum. Drew needed to go faster. We needed to do _something_ and oh God.

“Fai!” Molly yelled, and then she smacked my arm. “If something needs to be done, _do something_.”

My eyes flit from the ghouls to the streetlamps that we passed. Each one was flickering on up ahead of the car, given the time, but as we passed, or more accurately, as the ghouls passed the lamps, they started to burn out. My sister was right. Her magic wasn’t going to be super helpful against the zombies, at least not while we were moving at speed. Force alone wouldn’t stop them, but luckily I had the option of more than force.

A zombie ghoul leaped forward, digging its claws into the trunk. God, help me, for I had no choice. My right glove’s sigils lit blue as I mentally tugged on the lampposts that we passed. “ _Fulmina!_ ”

I extended my right hand, and a single bolt of electricity arced from my hand into the zombified ghoul’s body. Even animated dead have nerve endings and they control muscle movement in some fashion, even if it’s amplified by magic. The ghoul fell off the car twitching as my lightning electrocuted its muscles. Of course, it wasn’t long before the same ghoul was up on its feet again, chasing us as we turned onto the highway.

“I don’t think that amount of electricity alone is going to take them out, Fai…” Molly said, looking back.

“What does kill zombies?” Drew asked, changing lanes around another car and gears once more. We increased in speed, but damn, the ghouls were still moving. What the fuck had the necromancer been giving them? We had to be going eighty miles an hour by now.

“Fire, trauma, getting out of range of the drums…” Molly paused. “Well, that last one won’t kill them.”

I mentally tugged at the powerlines again, both my gloves glowing blue at this point. Slamming my hands together, I prepared to cast again. _“Fulminara!_ ”

The zombies dodged backward as I carved into the street with my lightning. The echo of thunder reverberated off of the median nearby. I was thankful that the lightning didn’t manage to hit any of the other cars on the road, and the thunder must have not been strong enough to knock them off-course. Luckily, I didn’t see any cop cars.

“Fuck, I missed!” I swore. There was something I could do, but I wasn’t entirely sure using them on the road was a good idea. What if I hit a car?

“I’ve got an idea,” Drew said. “Molly, take the wheel.”

“What?” Molly asked, and I echoed a half-second later.

“Molly, take the wheel. Trust me,” said Drew, and Molly did so, holding it steady. Drew let go of the wheel, and he reached into the center console to flick two switches. He unbuckled his seatbelt. “Switch with me, Molly.”

Molly climbed into the driver’s seat, and placed her foot on the gas, while Drew kept the wheel steady. Once she was secure in the seat, Drew slid back and moved over into the passenger seat, opening the glove box. This wouldn’t have even had a chance in hell of happening if my sister and Drew hadn’t been so flexible.

I couldn’t see what Drew pulled out of the glove compartment or wherever else he was digging, as I was focused on prepping another lightning spell. I needed to be able to actually hit them this time. I slammed my hands together again, pulling them apart slightly as the ball of lightning formed within them. _“Fulminara!_ ”

I sent out another arcing lightning bolt, this time striking the lead zombie in the shoulder. Electricity arced along its body, but it kept moving. Something didn’t make sense here though. Where was the necromancer? Shouldn’t she have been following us too? Her drummer should have been keeping the beat going so that the zombies could stay following us. I still heard a bit of it, but I couldn’t tell from where it came. Ignoring my spell hitting its comrade, one of the other two zombie ghouls crouched down at speed, and pushed off of the highway, jumping at the car.

I didn’t have time to cast a spell to stop it. With the angle it was at, its claws would take my head clean off with one fell swoo—

“Don’t think so.” I heard a loud crack and slight boom near my ear as the zombie’s arm was separated from its body by the shot pellets fired by Drew’s gun. Drew slid next to me in the back seat, leveling a Winchester shotgun over the back of the convertible. “Fire, trauma and what else, Fai?”

“No more drums, but that might not kill them.” I cracked my knuckles, but I knew Drew wasn’t impressed by false bravado. It honestly just felt good to crack them. I could still hear the drums, faintly. Where the hell were they coming from? The necromancer wasn’t in one of the other cars. “Destroying the brains might be enough.”

“Just like the stereotype then?” Drew asked.

“Hold on to something!” Molly called out, and I grabbed Drew’s arm and the seat. He braced the shotgun, and Molly turned the car down an exit ramp at speed, swerving around a minivan and an eighteen-wheeler. Oh… Sneaky sister.

Drew used the turn to fire at the zombie he’d already hit, but he only managed to graze it with that. While my lightning was fairly potent, it didn’t have the stopping power necessary for these. Harry’d probably use his blasting rod and lots of fire.

I pulled out my wand, slipping it into my left hand.

“Fai?” Drew asked.

“Shoot ‘em, Drew.” I twirled my wand in my left hand and splayed out my right. Fire might not have been my specialty, but my wand allowed something my gloves alone didn’t: direction. Flicking my wand, the runes engraved into the carved maple glowed the same red as my gloves, and I flicked my wrist. _“Hinotama!_ ”

I threw a fireball at each zombie, but then I focused with my wand, using it to allow the balls to strike true. Upon impact, each fireball exploded, knocking the zombie ghouls into each other, but still they chased. The fire ignited something on the third zombiefied ghoul, something that fell out of its chest cavity after a few seconds. It burned on the asphalt, and Drew shot each of the ghouls once more, but then he started fishing in his pocket. The wand allowed me the control to keep the fireballs from hitting any of the cars in traffic. God, I hoped that the people just wrote this off as us filming something. I suspected they would. The drums faded, but the ghouls continued chasing us. Maybe something of the necromancer’s orders lingered.

Molly kept us driving, turning down a side street at speed that ran near the college campus. She barely shifted down for the corners, warning us as she was about to do it. Luckily, this side-street was less crowded than the highway had been, but this part of town tended to have less people at this time of day than the highway.

I sent another fireball at the ghouls while Drew reloaded his gun, but I started thanking God the moment I heard the howling of wolves. We’d managed to reach where the Alphas were patrolling, thank God. Within seconds of the howl, four good-sized wolves leaped into one of our pursuers, leaving us just with the armless one and the one with a hole in its chest cavity.

“Fai?” Drew asked, but then he snapped up the shotgun and fired, driving the barrel of his Winchester into the snapping teeth of the one-armed zombie to do so. The zombie’s head snapped back, and Drew fired again, sending the zombie to the floor, flailing. I tossed a fireball at it for good measure, and it stilled. “Fai, what was with the wolves?”

“Werewolves. Friends of Harry’s. _Hinotama_.” I sent another fireball at the remaining ghoul, using my wand to direct it toward the chest cavity. My arm twitched at the last second, forcing the explosion to happen outside. Damn. That would have been perfect. “Where was the gun?”

“Right…” He sighted his shotgun on the ghoul and fired. Its head snapped back, and while it looked like the ghoul was going to get back up and keep going, the wolves tackled it to the ground, the dark-furred one tearing out what was left of its throat. “Had it under the passenger seat. Ammo in the glovebox.”

“Oh.” I breathed out a sigh of relief, lowering my implements and turning to Drew. I wrapped him into a hug and whispered, “Nice shooting, Drew.”

Drew dropped the now-empty Winchester, and he wrapped his arms around me. “Glad to be a help, Fai…”

I smiled, looking at him but avoiding his eyes. Drew had managed to hold his own against the supernatural. Sure, he was a member of the Venatori, but that was mainly on a technicality. Lara didn’t want to go against Ivy, who had allowed Drew to keep his memories as a favor to me. Drew had gotten smart about it since his graduation. I didn’t know when he purchased that shotgun, nor did I know when he managed to start shooting that well. “You have no idea how much a help you are…”

“Oh, I think I have a little idea,” Drew smiled radiantly in return.

And then Drew kissed me.

  



	17. Chapter Seventeen

Drew was kissing me. Drew was _kissing_ me. I don’t... I couldn’t…. Oh, this was… I leaned into the kiss, starting to return it. Drew was _kissing_ me. This wasn’t exactly… I mean… I really… Oh wow. Okay. How to describe this. I could go all poetic, saying that kissing Drew was like tasting fire with my lips, cinnamon and honey, but I won’t. I could say that our kiss beat out any of the kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure out of any of them, but Drew was no Westley and I was no Buttercup. Drew was kissing _me_ , and I was kissing _him_. God, I didn’t… I couldn’t… It was a lot. It was everything, and it was… It was Drew. If it hadn’t been Drew… if it had been any other man, I don’t know… I don’t think I’d be able to accept it.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t been kissed before. Hell, earlier that day I’d been kissed by _Mab_ , Queen of Air and Darkness, Queen of the Unseelie, the Winter Queen, and it had been surprisingly nice. I’d kissed and been kissed by Becca, my first long-term girlfriend. We’d even talked about going further than kissing before we ended up breaking up, but we hadn’t gone all that far. This was _Drew_ , kissing me. I just… He was the first man ever to kiss me. In either lifetime. Which, to be fair, in my previous lifetime, I’d only had the one girlfriend ever, but I’d never been attracted to men. I’d thought… Well, apparently I was wrong… God, this just felt… It felt right. It felt like butterflies were running through my stomach and my head…. Hoo boy, such a head rush.

Molly cleared her throat, from where she stood outside the car, loudly, and we pulled apart, a blush forming on my cheeks.

“Wow…” I said, looking at Drew. I’d noticed some things before, but… God, I wasn’t expecting that. Drew was my best friend, and… Oh, I was a little lightheaded there.

“If you two are done,” Molly started saying, but I didn’t hear anything else after that. Maybe that lightheadedness wasn’t from the kiss. I blacked out.

I opened my eyes to find myself sitting on a couch in the treehouse Daddy had built a few summers back. Last summer we’d managed to get an old couch and Harry had Molly and I train our telekinesis strength Jedi-style by lifting it up into the treehouse and getting it into place without using any equipment. Personally, I think that Danny or Mattie just found the couch and didn’t want to get it up there themselves, so they bribed Harry to get us to do it. That’s just me. Speaking of just me, I sat on the couch near my darker self.

Id, dark side, whatever she was, I really didn’t know what to call her, but she was me. In every possible sense of the word, she was me, but without most of the limits I consciously or unconsciously placed upon myself. Today she wore a leather jacket over a lace corset with tight leather pants and stiletto heels. She was gothed out with her make-up, dark eyes with a deep blue eyeliner, and a darker blue lipstick. Her lipstick was slightly smudged, and she grinned at me.

“Finally! I was wondering what the heck would take you so long. I mean yeah, sure, he’s no Becca, but damn.”

“Uh…” I said, oh so eloquently. “ _Finally_?”

“We’ve known Drew, what, a little over twelve years by now? He’s definitely a step up from how he was when we played house that long ago.”

“But… Becca…”

“And the Winter Queen. Two awesome kisses in one day, Faithy, you’re just giving such good things to me. Plus, the two of you broke up a few months ago. Get over it. I have.”

“I… Well, I mean… He’s—”

“A man? I hadn’t noticed.” I could feel the sarcasm dripping from her voice. “I’ve got news for you, Faithy. You’re bi.”

“What?”

“You like women and men. I thought that much was obvious from the last time we spoke. I mean seriously, strip club. You passed out in a strip club. Before you could even see which kind of strip club it would be. I mean, there could have been hot women or hot men and both would have been acceptable. Here, you passed out from blood loss and magical exhaustion, but at least you got in that awesome kiss first.”

“Blood loss?”

She reached over and pulled up my shirt, revealing the four lacerations on my stomach. They weren’t bleeding in here, but this wasn’t really representative of exactly what was going on outside. “The gift you got from the fucking ghouls.”

The two of us shivered simultaneously. “I hate ghouls so much. I should have been… I nearly…”

“Died? Yeah. You did. You’re welcome. The fuck were you thinking, going in after a necromancer? Especially one that used ghouls the way she did?”

“Molly wanted to…”

“Oh, Molly wanted to. Because that makes things so much better,” said my darker self. “Do you even know who that was? Who that must have been? She’s looking for the fucking Erlking book. Do you know who that is?”

“I’m not… One of Kellogg’s Apprentices?”

“Oh yes, she’s Tony the Tiger.” She rolled her eyes. “ _Kemmler_ had three apprentices that came to Chicago with their drummer assistants. Cowl. Grevane. And Capiorcorpus, also known as _Corpsetaker.”_

I shivered. God, that name… “So you think that the necromancer is… Corpsetaker?”

“No, _you_ think she is. I’m just pointing it out so that you can be fully informed,” she said, shaking her head. “Remember that Corpsetaker has the ability to jump bodies, forcibly switching herself into a body that isn’t her own. I wonder how long she’s had this one.” Corpsetaker was pretty bad. If I remembered correctly, she was the one who ended up switching bodies with the… someone important, and then Harry ended up having to kill her with his gun immediately after she jumped bodies. It looked bad on him when watched by… I couldn’t really remember, but he got attacked afterward. But Corpsetaker was strong, going for the big necromantic ritual that Harry needed to animate Sue to stop. And if she was _that_ strong…

“… Fuck. She _was_ playing with us.”

“She wants that book about the Erlking. Which we left at Harry’s place next to the perverted skull. She probably was hoping we’d lead her to it, or she was hoping we’d die so she could compel our ghosts or stolen our memories from our corpses. I won’t let that happen to us.” She smiled, her lips shifting to a different shade of blue, darker. I knew that she was referring to more than just me there. Molly was factored into the protection of self. “We need to get prepared for her, but… you also have to go out on a date with Drew.”

“It’s not a date. He just wants to show me a restaurant later that he thinks we’ll enjoy together.”

“Correction, Faithy. It _wasn’t_ a date.”

I touched my lips for a second. I wasn’t sure that it was necessarily a good idea to have a date with anyone right now, and maybe I could convince Drew not to treat it as one. Not that I really expected him to treat it as one. Drew and I had always been close, and… it was going to be really hard to not think of it as a date now. Even though it was last minute and it was going to be that evening. I needed to not have it be weird. I just wanted Drew to be able to be himself around me and not have to worry about trying to impress me, and I didn’t want to have to worry about trying to impress him. Which is why this was not going to be a date.

My inner self shook her head with a laugh. “You’ll see. In the meantime, it looks like our time is about up. Tell Sister Dearest that she’s an idiot for thinking her veil could last that long, and you are an idiot for not being able to deal with seeing fucking ghouls again. With a necromancer. Like Corpsetaker. Fucking hell.”

I opened my eyes to find myself in an unfamiliar bedroom, a ceiling fan going overhead. Initially, I felt myself start to panic, but I could feel Molly and Drew nearby. Oh, thank God. If I had woken in the hospital again and Molly hadn’t been there, I’d… Well, Molly not being nearby made things difficult. At least when being in unfamiliar places, anyway. Drew being here too meant that wherever we were, it was someplace safe, and given that I apparently was covered up, they cared about comfort.

Oh wait, I recognized the other energies and emotion sources flowing through this place. Oh. _Oh_. That’s where I was. The bedroom was only unfamiliar because I had never been in it before. This had to be the apartment that Billy and Georgia shared. It was the only logical place that we could have been taken that was nearby. Given our magic, taking me to the hospital wasn’t really the best idea for much the same reason that it was a bad idea to take Harry to a hospital. The techbane would break the machines, but as I had passed out, I needed some place to recover nearby. The Alphas had helped with our zombie problem, and being behind a threshold for a bit would be very helpful.

I lifted the covers off of me, to get ready to sit up, but then I lowered them quickly. A bandage was wrapped around my bare torso, and I wasn’t even wearing a bra. My gloves, likewise, had been removed, and so had my pants. Luckily, I still was wearing my underwear, but it looked like whoever had done the medical work on me wanted to be sure that I didn’t have further injuries that needed help.

“Your clothing, or what’s left of it, is in the washer,” said a tall, lithe woman, who was maybe about five or six years older than me. Her hair was a darker blonde than my own, and her body’s muscles were heavily toned. This was Georgia, one of the apartment’s tenants, and she was a psych major. Odds were, she was the one who performed first aid on me. “As you and your sister are closer to her size, Andi took Kirby with her to pick up some clothes for you. You might want to wait on those before coming out.”

“Yeah… seems like a good idea. Thank you, Georgia.”

“Not an issue, Faith. You and Harry would do the same for any of us, so we’re glad to help out,” Georgia smiled. It really was kind of pretty. Billy Borden was a lucky man. Huh. Well, I could still appreciate a good looking woman.

“So, those weren’t normal ghouls. Molly said to ask you when Billy prodded her about it,” said the werewolf.

“And that’s because I knew she’d want to be in on the explanation,” Molly said as she stepped into the room, and she moved over to sit on the bed near me. She ran a hand through my hair, and I smiled.

“Yeah… Might be best to wait until everyone’s here. Explaining this is going to be… complicated, but we could use the help.” I gestured to the door, and Georgia closed it, pulling a chair over to the bedside and sitting in it.

“Okay then, I’ll just check your bandages, to make sure that they’re fine,” Georgia said with a smile. “You weren’t really cut all that deep, but we had to make sure to disinfect the wound before wrapping it. What got you?”

“Ghoul,” I said, shivering. “Tried to gut me like a fish. I objected. He objected to my objection.”

“It wasn’t one of the ones…” I shook my head. “Oh. That’s almost worse, then. We heard about the police station… Is Lieutenant Murphy okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine. Or at least she was last night. She managed to help me get back to Harry’s before Moll and—wait, where’s Elidee?” I looked around for the tiny red fairy, but I couldn’t see her.

“We had some pizza in our fridge, and Billy warmed it up for her… She fed on the slices before flying off into the night… I can’t believe she ate as much as she did, given her size.”

Molly and I shrugged, saying in unison, “Fairies. They like Pizza.”

“What have you and Harry gotten yourselves into?” asked Georgia.

“Ah… About that…” I paused for a second. “No Harry this week. Just us.”

“Oh, then you _definitely_ need our help,” Billy said from the doorway as he opened it. “But first, you need to tell us what we’re helping with.”

Therein laid the problem. I wasn’t so sure that the Alphas would like just what we were actually going to need some help with. I knew that I definitely didn’t.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this scene threw a lot of my readers initially. After all, Faith's sexual preferences weren't fully defined, and she _was_ an SI. That said, Faith has grown up as Molly's twin, and they've rubbed off on each other a bit.
> 
> Not like that, you perverts.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

Billy Borden stared into the bedroom from its doorway, waiting for an answer that I wasn’t quite ready to give, given my state of undress. I mean, I was under covers, sure, but I really didn’t want to give any sort of detailed answer until I could be fully dressed again. Preferably with my implements at hand, even if they weren’t on. Yes, Harry trusted the Alphas, and from what I knew, they were pretty much worth the trust. The group of werewolves were starting to make a good name for themselves in the area, and they _had_ helped us out that night with those zombies. Frankly, I’m pretty sure that’s why Molly directed Drew toward them, and it’s why she continued driving in that direction when she took over. A small pack of wolves could inflict enough trauma to take down a zombie, even one made from a fucking ghoul.

“Billy, she’s only just woken up, and Andi’s not back yet.” Georgia glared at her boyfriend.

“Right, right…” Billy held up his hands in defeat.

“Is Drew out there?” I asked from the bed, sitting up slightly, keeping my chest covered.

“Yeah, he is, Fai.” Molly ran her hand through my hair again. It felt nice. “Why, you want to see him like that?”

“I just thought… I mean…” I did not bury my face in my hands, but that was mostly because my hands were being used to keep the covers from falling.

“How about I just go and check to see if Andi’s back yet,” Billy said, slipping out of the doorway and closing it behind him. I don’t know who was feeling more embarrassed by the situation, him or me. Molly just seemed more amused than anything else, and all I felt from Georgia was sympathetic concern.

Molly wrapped her arms around me, slipping them under the covers some, careful not to touch where I was bandaged. _I didn’t want you to get hurt, Fai. Not again._

Georgia looked at the two of us and pursed her lips. The concern she felt didn’t seem to be directed only at me at this point. Both of us? She was concerned about both of us? She schooled her face to a friendlier one, but I could feel… Well, it wasn’t quite fear from her, but… actually, I wasn’t really sure how to identify that emotion.

_I don’t really intend on getting hurt, Moll._ I leaned into my sister’s hug. For Georgia’s sake, I’d keep myself covered, but I really just wanted to... Well, I wanted to go be with Drew out in the living room, but… I didn’t think I was ready for him to see me in this state of undress. Yet. “So, Georgia, how many of you are still in Chicago? You’re still in school, aren’t you?”

“Oh, well, you know Andi and Kirby are around. Marci, Tommy and Cindy are out of town for a ski trip right now, so it’s just the four of us. As for school… Yes, I’m working on my graduate psych degree. Started that up in September.”

“That was the last time we were able to come,” Molly noted. “We’ve had a busy few months.”

“Yeah, you could say that again,” I commented. The Alphas had a weekly gaming session where Kirby ran an Arcanos campaign. Harry would join in on the games when he could, and Molly and I would go when he did. Sometimes we weren’t quite able to make it to the session due to homework or other things popping up, but I had a sneaky rogue to contrast with Harry’s barbarian. Molly had an evocation-heavy sorcerer, primarily to mess with Harry whenever she cast spells. For some reason Arcanos’s magic system seemed to offend our mentor. “I wish this could be a social call.”

“You two do know that you’re welcome to the game sessions without Harry if you’d like to show up to them, right?” Georgia looked first at me, then my sister. She took care to avoid catching our gazes, given what she knew about us. I wasn’t entirely certain that the Alphas with their single, albeit impressive, spell were able to soulgaze on their own, but they knew not to look wizards in the eye. Soulgazes weren’t really all that fun.

I nodded. “Honestly, it feels a little wrong to do it without Harry there.”

“I know what you mean,” Georgia sighed. “How is he, by the way? What’s he doing that has him out of town?”

“Gnoll incursion,” Molly said. “Or at least that’s what he told us and Daddy. Supposedly he’s in the Ozarks doing something about it, but I’m not sure.”

I shrugged, leaning on Molly a little. “Harry’s fine, mostly. His hand...”

“Yeah, I know. He can barely move it. I’m not sure how much it’s affecting him emotionally…”

“He keeps a lid on it, mostly. There’s a lot of frustration—” I started.

“—and anger there. We’re not exactly sure…” Molly shrugged. “At least he’s a good teacher. He really—”

“—seems to enjoy it. The teaching, I mean.” I smiled when I felt the approach of another woman toward the door. “Guess Andi and Kirby are here.”

The door opened revealing a striking bombshell of a redhead, dressed in sweats that could easily be slipped on or off as needed. Her figure could best be described as something out of a men’s magazine, visible even through the loose clothing she wore. She must have left her jacket in the living room or being a werewolf made it easier to deal with cold, as I really couldn’t see myself wearing only that, even with the ability to change into a wolf. God, she was just… well, damn. Andi Macklin was a whole lot of woman, but she was about six years older than me and dating someone else. Not that I was considering asking her out or anything, especially with Drew, but Georgia had said that Molly and I had similar figures to Andi.

I really hadn’t thought of myself in that way before. I mean, yeah I liked looking good and knew I did, but I couldn’t exactly equate myself with someone like Andi. I mean, yeah, Becca’d made a few comments about how… Never mind.

“Glad to see you awake, Faith,” said Andi as she slipped into the room, shutting the door behind her. “I’m sorry about your clothes. Your shirt probably isn’t salvageable, but your bra might be. Your jeans just need some cleaning, but they should be fine once Georgia’s finished with them.”

“Ah… That’s… damn.” I looked down for a second, and Molly lightly squeezed me with her hug.

“The shirt was a gift from her ex-girlfriend,” Molly explained. “Add that she lost her jacket…”

“My gloves! Where are my gloves?” I quickly asked, realizing finally that my hands were bare.

“Don’t worry, sis. I put them in your purse with your wand after washing the blood off.”

“And I have some clothes to get you decent. I got a look at your sizes, and what I have _should_ fit you.” Andi walked over, fairly enthusiastic. She looked at Molly and I, and I got a feeling of a sort of realization from her. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but Molly and I weren’t doing anything that some people would find creepy. I think. People are weird. “Here you go.”

Andi handed me the duffel bag, and I reached out to grab it. It seemed like the redheaded werewolf was intentionally trying not to stare, from the way she was looking away but glancing back every few seconds. I bet Drew would have the same reaction. Probably. Or he’d stare and I’d… oh right. Covers.

I clutched the duffel to my chest, blushing. “Ah, sorry.”

“Nudity’s not really that big a deal around here,” said Georgia, who was focusing mostly on Andi. “But you two _are_ still under eighteen, and you aren’t like us… We should remember that.”

I shook my head. “Right… I’ll just… I’ll go change.”

Molly let go of me so I could get out of the bed, and I headed for the bathroom, still clutching the duffel to my chest. Yeah, sure, we were all girls here, but I preferred at least a little bit of modesty. I didn’t really pay attention to the bathroom itself when I got inside other than it was clean, had a mirror, a toilet and a shower. They’d gone with a professional looking theme, from what I remember, but what caught my attention most was my reflection.

I was paler than usual for this time of month, and from the top of my hips to the middle of my midriff, I had bandages wrapped over some sort of absorbent pad. The bandages were pristinely white, but I was pretty sure whatever they were holding on wasn’t. I carefully pat myself on the stomach, and I winced at the flare of pain that I got there. I hoped that I could hide this from Mom, at least until whatever we planned on doing was over, anyway. I didn’t know how we could deal with a necromancer, but I knew we’d have to do something. Get in contact with some people, maybe. If only Molly and I knew how to contact the White Council, maybe we’d be able to get some Wardens helping, but our only link to the Council was somewhere in the Ozarks, without the ability to be contacted.

I’d love to just let Harry deal with this, with us giving as much support as we could, of course, but Harry was a big gun. Harry was _the_ big gun. Without him, dealing with a necromancer was going to be very hard. We might end up having to involve Daddy, and… I really didn’t want to involve him in something that the Knights of the Cross weren’t really supposed to be fighting. There were no Denarians here at the moment, and I wasn’t sure Daddy would get the same protections he gets against them against a necromancer that could steal bodies.

I looked into the duffel bag, and I started pulling out clothing. It seemed that Andi had some ideas about how I should be dressing for the night. I mean, I was just going to go to the restaurant with Drew in what I had been wearing, as it really wasn’t a date, but I supposed the outfit Andi had picked could work too. It really wasn’t like I had much choice in the matter, though the hoodie that she’d provided with it would work to keep me warm despite the rest of the outfit. It did surprise me to find out that Andi was only a little bigger than me, so the clothes didn’t hang too loose.

Molly knocked on the door before entering and whistled. “Not bad, sis. Looking healthier already.”

“Thanks… Uh… But…” I gestured vaguely toward my head.

Molly smiled. “Sure, just hold still.”

A few minutes later we left the bathroom and exited the bedroom into Billy and Georgia’s living room. Drew was sitting on the couch, flipping through a notebook that had what looked like Harry’s handwriting on the cover. It read “Your Story.” I wondered if that was the effort that Harry and the Alphas were putting in to approximate how magic really worked in a tabletop RPG, but after a few seconds, I mostly just smiled when Drew looked up from the pages at me.

“F-Fai, wow… I mean, I know they went to get some clothes for you, but…” Drew put the book down and walked over to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said, leaning into him. “Or I will be… thank you.”

Billy Borden also sat on the couch. Billy’s a pretty solidly built man with muscles like steel cables visible taut under his skin. He had a shortly cut head of dark hair and thin wire-rim glasses that were fairly stylish, likely the choice of his girlfriend, Georgia. She walked over from the kitchen to sit next to him. A tall, lanky dark-haired man, Kirby, smiled at us from the kitchen. He walked over and met Andi to sit on another couch.

Molly, Drew and I sat down together, each of them on either side of me, and I carefully avoided touching my injury. I smoothed the dress over my knees and crossed my legs. The Alphas had a mix of emotions. Concern came from Georgia, curiosity and protectiveness from Billy and Kriby, and Andi just had the curiosity with a slight tinge of nervousness. I doubted it was because we made her nervous, but it probably stemmed from what we’d taken down.

“So,” Billy said, his face impassive. “What exactly is going on and how can we help?”

“Right… This isn’t…” I shook my head.

“It’s something Harry wouldn’t want you involved in, really,” Molly said.

“Us either,” I added. “Just… Harry’s not here.”

“It’s okay,” Georgia said. “How about we start with what those were?”

Molly and I nodded in unison. We’d explain. “Well, those were zombie ghouls. Animated by a necromancer.”

“Zombies,” Kirby said, disbelief coloring his emotions and voice. “That’s what real zombies are like? No wonder Harry got annoyed… Never mind.”

We shook our head, smiling as Drew squeezed his hand. “The necromancer hired ghouls to attack the police station last night. We think she might also have been responsible for the death of one of Marcone’s men.”

“Right. Going to ask you girls a favor,” Billy said. “Could the two of you please talk one at a time rather than together like that? It’s a little creepy.”

“Like you have room to talk.” Drew laughed. “You can turn into a wolf and you find twins talking together creepy? Come on, it’s actually kind of cute.”

We smiled, and then I leaned further into Drew’s embrace. It wouldn’t do to antagonize our hosts that much, and I wanted to lean into Drew a bit more.

Molly smiled, her amusement at Drew and I very tangible. She turned toward Billy and nodded.

“Actually, I have a question,” said Andi. “Marcone’s man? As in one of Johnny Marcone’s men was killed here?”

“Yeah. Well, not _here_ here, obviously, but he died.” Molly shrugged. “Given what she’s after, she probably either killed him herself—”

“—or arranged his death,” I finished. “If she’s who I think she is… we’re out of our depth.”

“Who you think she is?” Georgia asked. “What do you mean?”

I breathed out a sigh. “I’m not really supposed to know this, but… I think she’s one of Kell-I mean, Kemmler’s disciples.” I could feel a bit of confusion throughout the room. Some of it from Drew, and I needed to explain. “Kemmler… if I remember correctly, was a pretty bad guy. He was a major big bad that the Council had to defeat. Big major scary necromancer and all around bad dude.”

“So… if the Council fought him the last time and won… they did win, right?” Kirby asked, and I nodded. “If they fought him and won, shouldn’t the Council be involved with this bit?”

“That’s a great idea,” Molly said with enthusiasm. “Do you know how to get in touch with them? Or in touch with someone who’s out in the Ozarks without any easy way of communicating?”

“So we’re on our own?” Billy asked. “How can we help?”

“Not sure yet,” I said. “We might not be entirely on our own. There’s a few possible avenues to contact the Council that we could try, keeping it somewhat anonymous, but I’ve really only just started thinking about that.”

“I could use a ride to Harry’s place,” Molly said. “And some dinner. I could do some research into Kemmler and seeing if Harry’s library has anything on disrupting or turning undead.”

_Careful Moll. Bob wasn’t always owned by Harry._ I paused for a second, but then I continued out loud, “Wait, why not ask Drew for a ride?”

“Because I’m not going to be a third wheel tonight,” Molly said.

“You know you’re welcome, Molly,” said Drew.

Molly waved it off. “Drew, I need to do this research, and you need to keep Fai away from research for the night until she’s rested properly.”

“Hey!” While I wasn’t offended, I was a tad annoyed. “I’m fine…”

“Fai, you cast more than I did. You got hurt more than I did. You’re not doing any research tonight. Go out with Drew and have fun.”

Drew squeezed me at that. “Besides, I think the owner of the restaurant we’re going to might be able to help.”

“Oh? Where are we going, Drew?” I glanced around the room. The Alphas had started discussing things in a quiet voice, trying to figure things out, I guessed. I hoped that wherever Drew was planning on taking us for dinner was good and could help either take my mind off the day or to focus enough on remembering what I could about Corpsetaker. It was too soon for her to be here, looking for that book. Plus, she was looking for the book I’d found the previous night, not the Word. What was going on?

“Oh, we’re going to a little hole in the wall place that I found. It seemed like it’d be just up your avenue.” Drew smiled, showing his pearly whites.

“Okay… what’s its name?”

“McAnally’s Pub.” Drew smiled at me. Oh… That seemed like a wonderful idea. It was only too bad that I wouldn’t be able to try any of his brew.

  



	19. Chapter Nineteen

We left Billy and Georgia’s not long after that to head out. Molly rode along in the minivan that the Alphas had parked out front while Drew and I left in the Ex Machina. It wasn’t all that far from the apartment to McAnally’s, maybe a twenty-minute drive through traffic. We passed by Harry’s office building on the way there, but we ended up parking in the lot across the street. The snow had been cleared out, and while there likely was some fresh snow ready to fall later, the roads had already been salted.

“Drew, how did you manage to find this place?” I asked, as we walked across the street.

“Well, I’ve taken you and Molly to your boss’s office a few times. I saw the sign, so I gave it a look on Yelp,” said Drew with a smile.

“Yelp. Wait, this place has a Yelp link?” Maybe it wasn’t the place I thought it was. I didn’t think that most of the people who would go in were the type to own a computer. Tended to be a bit of a problem when your thousand-dollar machine decided to up and break on you because you walked near it. Then again, if most of Mac’s customers were minor practitioners, then it was possible that they could use computers if their talents weren’t too strong.

“Sort of. It’s not an official one, but there are about three listings for McAnally’s on Yelp and Google. Most of the rave reviews come about the beer, but the food seems to be pretty good too.” Drew wrapped an arm around me as we got to the steps, carefully helping me down them so as to not aggravate my injury. “Why? Are you surprised?”

“More surprised that you managed to find the place at all, really. Mac doesn’t really advertise beyond that sign, and from what I hear, most normal folks tend to find other places to be than this pub.” I smiled at Drew. “Guess your informed status means you don’t quite count as normal anymore.”

“Wait, you know this place? Have you been here before?”

“Nope,” I said, popping the p as I leaned into Drew’s arm a little while taking the last step. “I’ve heard about it though, and well…” I tapped my head.

“Ah, that somewhat psychic bit you have,” said Drew. “Why would this place show up?”

“Well, I guess you’re about to find out,” I said as we reached the door. “Care to do the honors?”

Drew removed his hand and walked to hold the door for me. I stepped in through the door and grabbed onto the railing immediately beyond it. Drew followed me in not long afterward, but he paused at the top of the steps, taking in the ambiance and atmosphere before we both started descending.

McAnally’s is a pub that caters primarily to practitioners. While I hadn’t been there before myself, I knew of it from what Harry said and from what I remembered. There aren’t any video games, televisions, or anything like computer trivia to keep people occupied. There isn’t even a jukebox for the place. As Drew and I descended the stairs into the pub, we could see a player piano in the corner, something far less likely to go haywire and break around a group of magic users.

Once reaching the base of the stairs, we came to a room that had a somewhat low clearance with ceiling fans blowing. It wasn’t so low that either Drew or I were in any danger of hitting a fan with our heads, but give Drew another half-foot in height, and we might have been. Thirteen stools sat at the bar, and we could spot thirteen tables in the room. Thirteen windows set high in the wall to be above ground level allowed light from the streetlamps to shine into the pub, and thirteen mirrors on the walls cast reflections of us and the other patrons in a detail that could only just be made out. The mirrors helped to make the place seem bigger too. Thirteen wooden columns, each carved with likenesses of various creatures and beings from folklore and legend from the Old World were placed in strategic areas, making it hard to walk anywhere in the pub without weaving around them. From what I could tell and feel, the moment I hit the pub floor, they also broke up random energies that tended to gather around practitioners in a setting where they might have shown up more. Drunken wizardry. Not even once. Nailed to a pillar near the bar was a sign that said simply in block lettering: “ACCORDED NEUTRAL TERRITORY.” This meant that any signatories of the Unseelie Accords, including both the White Council and the Red Court, would respect this as a place of neutrality. They’d be bound by honor to not fight within the pub and take it outside as soon as possible.

No waiters or waitresses roamed the pub taking orders, and despite that, the pub was occupied by a decent amount of people. Most of them were probably minor practitioners, like the pair of dark-haired identical twin girls playing chess in the corner. They had a bond akin to what Molly and I had, but just looking at them, I knew it was different, a bit more artificial. It weirded me out a bit that it manifested that way for the two of them, and that they’d use it to play chess against each other of all things. I couldn’t tell what each of everyone else had, not the elderly woman in the corner table, not the group of six at another table with mugs of ale, and definitely not the well-dressed prettyboy sitting at the end of the bar sipping a cup of ale.

Working behind the counter was a tall lithe man in a spotless white shirt and apron. The man hadn’t a speck of hair on his head, not that it took away from his hawkish looks, and he could easily have been any age between thirty-five and fifty and any guess would likely be wrong. This was the pub’s owner, McAnally, or Mac for short. He noted Drew and I entering, and he gestured toward an empty table near the bar. Neither Drew nor myself had any objections to that, so we took the seats.

Once I sat down, I noticed something odd that had… well, I really wouldn’t say that it was bugging me from when we entered, but it’s something that started when we entered the pub. I shivered as I realized. Something was missing.

“Fai, you okay?” Drew asked as he sat down after pushing me in. “You look like something’s odd. Your bandages are holding okay, right?”

Okay, I could still feel that. Drew was concerned, and oh wow, the depth of his concern was touching. “Oh, I’m fine, Drew… I think. They’re holding just fine. I’ll have Moll help me redo them before bed tonight. It’s just…”

“Just?” Drew raised an eyebrow.

“It feels nice in here,” I said, truthfully. Imagine this. One day you start noticing an annoying buzz that just constantly hums just beneath your ear that gets louder when you’re around people. The buzz is persistent, annoying, and you can’t really stop it from being there no matter how hard you try. So, you learn to live with it, somewhat. After a while, you get used to it being there, only really noticing when it gets louder as you get near people. Now imagine going somewhere and the buzz disappears completely, allowing you to focus on the music of just what’s nearby. That’s what it was like in Mac’s pub for my empathy. I assumed it was due to the way he’d laid out the pillars, tables and windows. Something about it let me focus my empathy close by rather than getting from everywhere at once. I could focus on Drew and Drew alone, and it was… wonderful. “I can see why Harry comes here a lot.”

“Ungh,” Mac said from behind the counter. I couldn’t really tell what he meant by that, but Drew’s eyes lit up.

“Ah, yes sir. We’ll have what’s on tap to drink and whatever meal you recommend,” Drew said in reply.

“ID?” Now that, I caught. I resisted the urge to kick Drew’s shin for trying that. I supposed if we really wanted to get some bottles of Mac’s brew, we could probably just swipe some of Harry’s or get him to give it to us.

“Under 21, sorry,” I said with a sheepish shrug.

“Ungh.” Mac walked over to an ice chest, and he pulled out two bottles of a dark liquid. He popped the top off each and placed them on the bar. The liquid in the bottles was darker than what I saw other patrons drinking, which told me that it wasn’t quite his ale that he brewed. Plus, it was _cold_. Not a single glass of ale had condensation on it, meaning that they weren’t served cold.

“Drew, if you’re waiting on him to bring it to us, I don’t think he’s going to.”

“Right.” Drew walked over, grabbed the bottles, and he brought them back to the table, sitting down again. We each took a sip directly from the bottle, and oh wow. It wasn’t alcoholic, but it was definitely something freshly brewed.

“This is sarsaparilla, right?” I called over to the counter, and Mac nodded. “It’s very good.”

“Hrngh.” Mac’s response… I bet that if I was sitting at the bar, I’d be able to at least guess at what he was saying, but Drew seemed to have no trouble. Mac then turned and started cooking something in the pan on the wood-burning stove he had behind him.

“He appreciates the compliment,” Drew said with a smile. “Finally, something you don’t quite get.”

“I can’t help it if I don’t speak man-grunt. Not exactly a caveman,” I said. Fuck, I didn’t even really speak caveman in my last life either. And I was a man then.

“Me Drew, you sexy,” Drew said, grunting afterward, and God help me, I laughed. My cheeks heated up slightly too, but I just… well. I ended up sipping more of the sarsaparilla to try and fight off the blush.

“It’s not like I picked out the outfit,” I said. “I didn’t quite expect a dress this low cut.”

“It’s not really cut that low, and the hoodie helps cover some things if you zip it up.”

I shook my head. “It’s fine. We’ll just have to stop by Harry’s before I go home. I’ve got a spare change of clothing I keep there in case of clothing-destroying accidents.”

“Have a lot of those?” Drew asked.

“One of the spells I have, I jokingly call _Speedforce_. There’s a reason the Flash wears fire retardant clothing. Normally when I cast, the clothes are able to move as well, but a couple times… well, friction burn is mean.” I shrugged.

“Uh huh…” Drew pretended to have his eyes glaze over a bit. If it weren’t for the fact that I could feel his teasing nature coming forward, it might have gotten me. I nudged him in the shin with my foot. “Sorry, just need to picture it.”

I snorted. Sure, it was unladylike, but Mom wasn’t around. “So.”

“So,” Drew said. “Guess we should address the elephant in the room. The kiss.”

I nodded, my cheeks heating up slightly. “Y-Yeah. Sorry for passing out on you afterward.”

“You’d lost some blood and something something magic something. I… shouldn’t have kissed you without permission, though.” Drew bowed his head slightly. “I know you and Becca had been together for some time before…”

“No, Drew,” I said. “The kiss was nice. Surprising, but not… really not… unwelcome. As for Becca… I won’t say I’m completely over her, but… I think it might be a good idea to start trying to move on.”

“Why did the two of you break up anyway? Not that I’m really complaining, but you were cute together. I was a bit jealous.”

“A few reasons, really.” I shook my head, looking down. “One of which was the fact that I was hiding a part of my life from her. I floated revealing the magic thing to her once, but the reaction she had… it scared me a little. As goth as she is, I don’t think she’d accept that magic is real all that well.”

“Yeah, I suppose I can understand that,” Drew said. “Knowing what you’re capable of, what you and your sister are able to do… I’m glad I know it, even if it took…”

I nodded. “I wish I could visit Glenn and Jace, but I don’t… I don’t want to mess up their life support.”

“Mister Barnes had Jace transferred to another hospital, actually. They moved out of Chicago last year, around when you guys were at Cedar Point.”

“… Oh. Damn.”

“So, you said other reasons too?”

“Molly,” I said.

“I thought Becca was Molly’s friend.”

“She was. Might still be somewhat, but less so. I think Becca’s words were that she wanted to be dating me, not dating Molly and I. I think how close we were might have freaked her out a bit.”

“You two didn’t do the one-person thing around her, did you?” Drew asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so, but she still had some problems with how close we are. As much as I cared for Becca, I wasn’t going to shut Moll out. I can’t.”

Drew nodded. “Yeah, I get that. I’ve known you two for a while. I really do get that.”

“I know, and we appreciate it, really. I just...”

“Yeah. If we end up dating, I get what dating you means.” Drew smiled at me, and I sighed wistfully at the joy coming off of him.

“Dating. You want to date me?” I asked. “I mean, there was the nice kiss, and you’re cute and I just… well, we’ve always been close, and I wouldn’t really be opposed to getting closer, but…”

“You don’t want to potentially ruin our friendship,” said Drew, understanding coming off him in waves. “I think you’re worth the risk.”

I got out of my chair to hug Drew. “I… think it might be worth it too. You’re worth it.”

“Besides,” Drew said. “I have no intention on ending our friendship, just upgrading it.”

I smiled, and pecked Drew on the cheek. Two plates of fresh steak with steamed vegetables sat on the bar, and since I was up, I went to go get them. Stopping for a second, once I was near the bar, I greeted Mac.

“Hey Mac, good to meet you.”

“Ungh.” Okay. Standing near him, I figured that one was either a “pleasure to meet you too” or “my ass itches.” I was leaning toward the former.

“We’ll need to talk with you after we eat.” I gestured to Drew before picking up the plates.

“Name?”

“Faith Carpenter and Drew Warren.”

“Harry’s apprentice.” Mac nodded. The man seemed to not be fond of talking much himself, preferring to listen, which made him a good bartender.

“One of them, yeah.” I took the plates to our table, and after setting the food down I immediately took a bite. Oh, that was some delicious steak. How had he known that I prefer my steak medium rare? The vegetables tasted fresh too. Drew loved the meal as much as I did, and we spent much of our time eating in silence.

Drew put down his knife and fork to take a swig of his sarsaparilla and then said, “Okay, this is better than Yelp implied. I’m surprised it isn’t more popular.”

“I think it’s popular enough with its target crowd,” I said after sipping my own drink. “This isn’t exactly a place for uninformed mortals, so I don’t think most would be able to even find it. Yelp or no Yelp.”

Drew shrugged. “I suppose. Practitioners tend to be bad with technology, so Yelp wouldn’t really help them find this place anyway.”

“Yeah, but Mac’s had it open a while in some form or another,” I said. “You can tell from how worn these seats are.”

“So, what does the neutral territory sign mean?” asked Drew.

“Well, bearing in mind that I haven’t really been here, the only thing that comes to mind are the signatories to the Unseelie Accords. Means it’s a place that people on that shouldn’t get into conflict.”

“Ah… what’s that?”

“Group of diplomatic laws and bureaucracies put in place to deal with how supernatural entities formally interact with each other. Basically all the major players are people who have signed it.”

“Vamps too?” asked Drew and I nodded. “Okay, that’s just not right.”

I shrugged. “Is what it is.”

Drew nodded. “So, about before we got our food… Where… do you want to go with this? I mean, I know you said you liked the kiss—which I’m really glad you did—but I don’t want to get my hopes up over nothing.”

I smiled at his apprehension and worry, trying to alleviate some of it, but I could see where it was coming from. I had a bit of it myself. “I honestly… don’t know. I’m willing to see where this goes, what might happen, but you’re really the only guy I’ve ever really…”

“I’ve seen you checking out the vamp,” said Drew.

“Stupid sexy vampire,” I muttered. “He cheats. It’s not the same with him. I check out his sister too, and she’s a hell of a lot more scary. Drew, I don’t think I could do what we did with any other guy and not feel completely wrong afterward.”

“Ah…” Drew shook his head and smiled. “Well, then we’ll have to make sure I’m the only guy. So you don’t feel wrong.”

I laughed. The line wasn’t exactly a good one or really all that suave, but Drew saying it was great. We ate a bit more, finishing off our meal. It seemed a crime to even think about leaving leftovers. Mac’s cooking was just that good. With how good the sarsaparilla was on top of that, I had to wonder just how amazing his ale turned out. The only issue with that was I wouldn’t legally be able to find out for four and a half years.

My fork slipped off my plate as I put it down, and I started to bend over to pick it up before wincing in pain.

“Fai, you okay?”

“Yeah… just forgot about… the stomach thing for a second there. Mind getting the fork?”

Drew stood up and came over to my side of the table to pick it up. He placed it on my plate gently. “How the hell did that happen anyway? I didn’t get to look at it when Georgia brought you in there, but I saw the lines of blood on your shirt that dripped down.”

“You saw the damage those things did to your car. A live one did it to my stomach, and that was only a graze. If I’d been two inches to the right, it would have gutted me.”

“A ghoul?” he asked, and I nodded. “God, Fai. I should have been in there with you.”

“I’m glad you weren’t, Drew. You showed up right when we needed you.”

“So, what then? You mentioned something about contacting the Council, but without your boss in town, how would you go about that?”

“Not entirely sure,” I admitted. “When you brought up where we were going, I thought that maybe we could talk with Mac and ask him to do it for us.”

“Couldn’t hurt to try,” said Drew. “We’re more or less done eating anyway.”

The two of us stood, taking our plates, and we made our way over to the bar. We placed the empty plates on the counter, and we waited for Mac to pick them up.

“Mac,” I said when he got close. “You know some things about a lot, right? I think Harry mentioned that.”

“Ungh.” I turned slightly to Drew, verifying what I felt. Drew gave a nod. Must have been an affirmative.

“If we… say… needed to contact the White Council about something, how would we do that?”

“Harry,” Mac said simply. Which made sense. Harry was the only real Council member that lived in Chicago. Sure, a number of practitioners probably had gotten visits from Wardens warning them off of breaking the Laws, but Harry was the only full-fledged member that actually lived in town.

“Harry’s not exactly in town,” I said. “And we can’t really get into contact with him at the moment.”

“Hrngh.” Mac’s grunt sounded a little perturbed. I glanced to Drew, and he shook his head, mouthing something about disappointment, which matched the feelings I was getting.

“Harry’d probably be able to handle this without calling in the cavalry, but… it’s a bit of an issue.”

“How bad?” Mac asked.

“If I’m right, potentially catastrophic, but maybe not right away.” I lowered my voice. “Necromancy. We need Wardens.”

Mac grimaced, and I didn’t need a translation for that one. He pulled out a bar napkin and wrote down a phone number with some different country code in front. “Number.”

“For the Wardens?”

“Ungh.” Mac nodded, and I shivered slightly. The Council didn’t know about Molly and I yet, and I wasn’t sure this was how I wanted to alert them to us. Still, they needed to come in to deal with the necromancer.

“Any chance you could contact them for us?” I asked.

“I’m out,” Mac said simply. Whatever he meant by that, I got the gist that he’d already helped as much as he felt comfortable doing so. As disappointed as I was about that, maybe we’d be able to get some grey-cloaked help to deal with the woman who might be Corpsetaker. Handing it over to the Wardens seemed like the prudent move.

“All right,” I said, turning to Drew. Drew pulled out his wallet and paid for the meal. “Guess we should get going then, thank you.”

I grabbed the napkin, ready to stash it in my purse and Drew and I made our way out of the pub. Once we stepped outside, the snow had started to pick up a bit. I raised the hood on the hoodie I wore, and Drew did the same with his jacket. Someone bumped me from behind as we made our way to the street, and then my hand with the napkin in it was empty. I hadn’t quite managed to get my purse to the position I wanted to put it in so I could slip the napkin inside, but now it was suddenly gone. Where the hell had it gone?

“Huh, would you look at that. The Young and the Restless want to call in the Wardens for some reason,” the figure who had bumped me said from up ahead. He turned around. The well-dressed prettyboy from the bar stood there holding the napkin, a taunting smile formed on his too perfectly black hair-framed face. “Allow me to not let you waste your time. The Wardens are too busy to come and help with your petty little problems.”

Wait. I recognized that sort of energy. God, I wished it wasn’t that. “Why would the wardens be too busy?”

“It shouldn’t matter to either of you. You’ll soon be too dead to care,” the man’s eyes enveloped in black and his fangs extended. Fuck. I hated when I was right.

  



	20. Chapter Twenty

So, it turns out that there are ten different Vampire Courts, each with its own different kind of vampire within it. I’d asked Bob one day after Harry spent some exceedingly long time around the White Court, and he ended up telling me all of their names, but the only ones that were actually relevant to the United States ended up being the Whites, the Blacks, and the Reds. The Black Court was made up of what you would tend to think of as the traditional vampire, like from Dracula. Turns out Dracula was even a biography, something published to show just how easy it was to kill the walking corpses that the Blacks were. Their vulnerabilities were manifold, ranging from items of faith, to garlic, to the classic: the wooden stake through the heart. Fire would work too, but then fire worked on most things. In exchange, they got a sort of immortality that well, more or less was just them animating a walking corpse. Well, there was also the ridiculous strength and speed increase they had. Though they had many weaknesses, they were easily the strongest group of vampires. All too different were the vampires of the White Court, which fed on emotion. These vampires were likely where the myth of the succubus started, given that the Raith family feeds on lust. From what I managed to get out of Thomas, there are two other families, House Skavis and House Malvora. The former feeds on pain, suffering, and the latter feeds on fear.

The vampire standing in front of Drew and I, however, was quite obviously of the Red Court. Reds more or less look human most of the time, albeit nearly perfect and attractive, but that’s only a mask over their true self within. A Red Court vampire without its flesh mask is a disgusting thing to behold. They are bat-like creatures with a narcotic-like saliva that’s heavily addictive. It makes their prey all the more docile so that they could feed, and it’s really insidious how good the stuff feels.

God, how good the stuff feels. My skin tingled just looking at the vampire, and I hadn’t been afflicted by the venom for nearly two years. I could only imagine what it must be like for their thralls, getting dosed daily by the venom as their lives slowly withered away due to blood loss, minds slowly getting broken by the repeated and wondrous rapture provided by their vampiric masters. Oh… right. Getting off-track there.

“Wait, you don’t want to kill us,” I said quickly to the vampire.

“Pretty sure I do,” the vampire said, his flesh mask wriggling as the thing underneath moved.

“No, you really don’t,” Drew added. “Trust me. Killing us would go very badly for you. We ate a lot of garlic today.”

I coughed and muttered “Black Court,” before actually talking. “I was more thinking about where we’re in front of. How about you go back inside and have an ale? I’ll even pay for you.”

“This isn’t neutral ground, apprentice.” Shit, he recognized that. He must have overheard our talk with Mac. The Red Court and White Council had been at war for a while now—partially Harry’s fault—and if we were in Mac’s, the vampire would have to abide by the neutral territory sign. Given my association with Harry, I’d have to as well, but Drew wouldn’t. “Besides, I find that virgins such as yourselves are the most delicious.”

Wait. He knew I was a virgin? I thought only White Court had that little feature. Fuck. He was blocking the way to the lot, and we couldn’t just run past him. We’d be well within reach of his speed. If I had the energy to cast Soukotte, it’d be trivial to get the napkin from him and just leave, but the fight with the ghouls and the subsequent run getting away from zombie versions of the same fucking creature had drained a lot more than blood out of me. That was the primary reason I passed out after the amazing kiss. I didn’t know if it would be a good idea for me to cast anything, and my implements were in my purse anyway. There wasn’t a lot that I could cast easily without a focus at hand. I could use my crucifix to keep the vampire at bay, but that only worked so long as it was being focused on, and it wouldn’t drive it back much further so much as burn the flesh mask away. There was _one_ spell, I could think of that would be useful in this situation, without my gloves or wand.

“Drew, get ready to run,” I hissed out to my… friend. I only hoped that he’d be able to take the initiative and try what I was trying when I did it. Fuck. I wanted to live. I curled the fingers of my right hand and twisted my wrist. “ _Sfukaze_.”

I slammed as much force as I could muster in a sweeping motion into the vampire, right as I felt him tensing for an attack. He tumbled side over side through the air, and the moment his feet left the ground, Drew and I started running. God, that took way too much out of me. If it weren’t for Mac’s cooking, I doubt I’d have had the energy to even attempt that and we’d have been sitting ducks for the vampire to just feed upon and kill if he so chose.

I didn’t know how much time we’d have before he started after us, so I fished my necklace into my left hand, holding it so the crucifix was visible over my fist with the pentacle within it. Magic is the essence of life and is linked to within, but the power of Christ comes from Him. My belief was definitely not in question here. I turned my head toward my friend and called, “Drew, your crucifix…”

“Right.” As we ran, he fished his own Jesuit crucifix out from within his shirt and held it firm. “How do I…?”

“Focus on your belief,” I said, getting ready to say more when I heard a tearing sound and I started focusing myself. God helps the faithful to face His enemies, and vampires were one major enemy that faith in Him helped to defeat. My crucifix began to emit a silver light, and then I hit the curb of the parking lot and pain flared up in my abdomen. Drew didn’t seem to notice, but the vampire definitely did. I could feel his anticipation, his desire for the hunt. I could feel… fuck, the pain hurt… I just… fucking hell. I hoped I wasn’t bleeding again. I ran a couple more steps before stumbling, my right hand going to my bandaged stomach, though my left still emitted holy light.

That minor stumble was more than the vampire even needed, given its speed, as it tackled me to the ground, face first. I moved my arms to shield my face as the ground came forward, and when I felt the vampire’s teeth come close to my shoulder, I flexed back with my glowing crucifix, shoving it into his face. I felt some of the weight lift off my back as the vampire screeched with rage, heat emitting from the remains of his flesh mask.

“Go, Drew!” I called out to my friend as he looked back at me. He hesitated, but I called out again, louder, “GO!”

“You will pay for that, bitch!” The vampire hissed and I rolled over, still holding the crucifix in a similar position, but the bat-like creature used its more flexible form to pin down my right arm and left shoulder. Its legs pushed down hard on my own. Luckily, I still had movement with my left arm, but without the ability to cast anything substantial, I only had the option of holding the vampire at bay and keeping it from biting me with my crucifix. Well, there was one more option, but that was a last resort. Well, more accurately it was a final resort.

“You sure…” I gasped out. “You want to eat… my Death Curse?” As the vampire’s fangs got closer, I focused my belief again and shoved the crucifix in his face. God, I didn’t want to die, but you can bet your ass if this fucker was the one to kill me, he would suffer for it. I wasn’t sure that I’d actually be able to directly take him out with my Death Curse, but I’d make it easier for any other wizard to do so. I’d make it easy for any normal mortal to do so. This vampire would know what it meant and felt like to be weak. I wasn’t quite ready yet to fuel a final spell with my life force, not when I still held out hope that I could make it through regardless. That didn’t mean I couldn’t bluff.

“Death Curse? Don’t make me laugh! Someone as young as you can’t have a Death Curse.” The vampire sneered at me before running its snakelike tongue over its fangs. Its tongue glistened an oily black like it’s skin, clearly coated with its venom, practically dripping.

“Harry Dresden’s apprentice…” I growled out. God, I hoped that Molly and Drew could forgive me for what I was considering. I didn’t want to do it. I shivered involuntarily, but I held the crucifix steady. “Are you willing to take that chance?”

“When I’m done with you, girl, you won’t want to use your Death Curse…” The vampire looked at me, past the glowing silver light of the crucifix. Why had I been able to use this like a shield against the Eebs, but I could barely keep this vampire from biting me? My belief hasn’t wavered. “Not that you’d have been able to do much with the Wardens… They’re otherwise indisposed.”

Wait. Really? He was… Was this vampire really going to go into “this is my evil plan” mode? On the one hand, it meant that I was likely to live longer, but on the other… the fuck? I shoved the crucifix closer toward him, and I opened my mouth to speak.

“Wait how are they ind—” I started coughing as something liquid struck the back of my mouth, tingling as it did so. God, I needed to… Fuck. I was just… I needed to focus on the issue at hand. I swallowed. “How are they indisposed?”

The vampire laughed an eerily familiar laugh. “They’re occupied with my brethren, my Court is playing cat and mouse with them. We’re striking at their operations…” The vampire snapped at me again, but this time I shoved the crucifix against the fucker’s face, focusing my faith with a quick prayer. The light flared brighter and actually sizzled as the vampire backed off. My right arm could get free… Why did I need to get free again? _Focus_.

“Where… when?” I asked. The vampire felt such sadistic glee at telling me these things, and I just needed to take advantage of that. Whether it was truth or lies, and it didn’t feel like lies, the longer I kept him talking, the less likely he was to feed.

“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know? What does it matter, girl?” The vampire pushed against my chest lightly with its elbow, and I started to move my arm reflexively, but its tongue came down and licked at the exposed skin, and I gasped. “That’s it, girl… Give in. You’re all alone now, and you’re mine…”

“No…” I ground out. No matter how… No, I wouldn’t let it happen. My heart pounded in my chest. I couldn’t let it happen. This was a vampire. A Red Court vampire at that. If it had been White Court, maybe this would have been a different story, but God… No. I needed to _focus_.

“Why bother fighting it?” The vampire’s tongue dipped out again. “Just give up already. Nobody will miss you. You’re all alone…. And so worthless an apprentice.”

“Wait… what?” Everything faded away at that moment. The world was just me and the creature on top of me. The world didn’t matter. What mattered was this moment. How I handled this moment.

“You should just give in,” the vampire said, pushing my fading crucifix to the side. “Give in, and give up your worthless life.”

Oh. Fuck. No. I did not just get called worthless by a vampire that couldn’t even be bothered to introduce himself. I did not just get called worthless by a vampire who had to eavesdrop at Mac’s to try and get a meal. I did not just get called a worthless apprentice. I am _not_ worthless. Electricity arced down my arms. I was _pissed_. I didn’t care that I was probably high on Red Court venom. I didn’t care that doing this could come close to killing me. I didn’t care because I am _not_ worthless.

I slammed my hands together, focusing all the anger, all the rage, all the fear, and all the hate I felt at that moment into the spell as electricity continued to arc down each arm, quickly reaching the sound of chittering birds. Casting it this way felt a little funny, and normally I wouldn’t be able to without my implements, still in my purse at my side, but right now everything was perfectly clear. “ _Fulminaga_.”

I shoved my hands into the vampire’s chest and released a bolt of lightning that went through his body, shooting off skyward. The creature’s grip on my legs lessened as the electricity caused its limbs to twitch, but still it remained atop me. I didn’t know if I had the strength to even try to push it off.

“Hey asshole!” Luckily, it appeared I didn’t have to as Drew swung the butt of his shotgun into the electrocuted vampire’s stomach, not quite piercing it, but knocking the vampire off of me enough that I could roll away. “Get the fuck off my girlfriend!”

I rolled back a few feet as the vampire struggled to get to its own. My lightning hadn’t killed it. Without my implements to help me focus the blast, it was too wide to pierce the fucker properly, but it had stunned the vampire. I suppose the vampire was a little shocked at that. Hehe. Shocked.

As the vampire started to try and right itself, Drew shoved the muzzle of his shotgun into the fanged mouth and pulled the trigger. The vampire’s head exploded backward. I raised my left hand and channeled what was left of my focus and energy into creating a shield to protect against the splatter, barely getting it up in time to protect Andi’s dress. It was so nice; I didn’t want it ruined. Once the vampire’s body struck the ground, Drew fired the shotgun at its head once more for good measure.

“Rule 2, Double-tap…” I giggled. “Have to make sure it’s dead…”

“Fai, you okay?” Drew… he’d called me his girlfriend. Did that mean I was? I mean… It was Drew and he was special, but was I ready to have a boyfriend? I mean… Well, I wanted to do something for him. He did help save my life.

“Fine… fine…” I sat up and tried to get to my feet before wobbling over. Drew rushed and caught me in his strong arms, holding me. It felt so nice. I could have just kissed him. Maybe I should have. I mean, the kiss earlier was nice, and… Mmm… just being held by him was nice.

“Fai, you don’t _look_ fine. Did you tear your bandages?” Drew asked as he helped me toward his car, shotgun in one hand. I could feel his worry, but it just… wait…

“Drew, why hasn’t anyone come out?” I asked, looking back toward the pub. “I mean, people don’t just hang out in pubs all day and all night until closing time, do they?”

“Some do, Fai…” Drew continued helping me toward the car, but I broke away from him for a second.

“Where’s the napkin, Drew? The vampire took the napkin and it had the number that Mac wrote down.”

“I’ll go back in and get him to write it down again, Fai. You just get over here into the seat and let me check your bandages.” Drew opened the car door and sat me down inside. He then ran his hand over my stomach, over the dress where the bandages were, and I shook my head.

“No, no, no, Drew… You can’t check my bandages like that…” I started hiking up the dress so he could see my midriff. “There, see?”

“Okay!” Drew pushed down my hands and the dress. My purse slipped off my shoulder and down onto the floor of the car then. Why was he embarrassed? And… well, whatever else that was, it was nice… He was nice and smelled good and… Wait, there was more.

God. Why was there more? Where… What… Sad… Angry… Happy… what? Not Drew. Not Molly… What? So much… Oh G*od… too much. Why was there too much?

“Faith?” Drew asked a few seconds later. Was it a few seconds? “Fai, what’s wrong?”

“It… It hurts… It hurts, Drew….” I whimpered.

“What does?”

“Everyone…” In a city of 2 million people… what the fuck had the vampire done to me?

  



	21. Chapter Twenty-One

So much… I could feel so much. God, why did I feel so much? Pain. Pleasure. Joy. Sadness. Anger. Fear. Where was it all coming from? Why couldn’t I focus? Why was… where was… I just… God, please… please… Why couldn’t I shut it out? This sea of emotion… it would drown me. I couldn’t… I just... Too much. Everything and everyone… I didn’t know how far out I was reaching. I didn’t… I just… I felt. I felt it all. Every bit of it.

I whimpered. The sheer amount… it was deafening. I couldn’t… I just needed to… and my own… God, what was wrong with me? “Drew…”

“Fai, I’m here.” Drew squeezed my knee, and the feelings it evoked within me were _mine_. I didn’t want to get lost. I wanted… I wanted to be me. Or us. But not all of us. I couldn’t… I needed my emotion. My feelings. My skin tingled where Drew’s hand was, but it didn’t dull the sounds… I just… he was concerned. I think. “We need to get you somewhere safe, where?”

God… I couldn’t focus. Adrift on a sea of emotion, my focus shifted around, looking for a life preserver. Needed. I needed. I don’t know what I needed, but there was too much. Wait…. “Wards…”

“Wards, Fai?” Drew started the car... I could hear the engine rumbling, feel it moving, but then oh… Oh God. Panic… Shivering… Oh no nonononono… Why was? Pain. Fuck. Anger… Fading… panic more panic… fear. What was? My head whipped around, eyes darting back and forth as Drew pulled out of the parking lot. God, what was… It had to be there. Where was it? No. No… Oh… Joy now… and… oh….

I bit my lip, gasping. “Need… Wards…” Fuck. So much… what… why was? God…. So much… Shit… what was… I shivered and wrapped my arms around my shoulders, pressing against my chest. “Harry’s...”

“Your boss’s place?” Drew asked, looking over to me. I could taste his concern, feel it. It was his, stronger than the others… but there were so many others. He was… I just needed… “Fai, talk with me, please. What hurts? What did you mean by everyone?”

“Feel…” I said, whimpering again. My skin tingled everywhere, and I was… It felt nice, but there was too much. Everyone was too much. “I can feel… They’re all out there… everyone…”

“Fai,” Drew shifted gears as he drove, keeping speed limit. “You can feel what? How many people there are? Feel…”

“Everything!” I shuddered as my voice cracked. “It’s so much… so much pain… so much joy… pleasure… It’s everything. Make it stop Drew… Please make it stop…”

“I don’t know how.” Drew drove along. “Just… focus on my voice, Fai. Keep focused on me and my voice. Maybe this can help.”

I placed a hand on his arm. I needed to feel something tangible. Something that wasn’t from outside… and my skin tingled and oh God. I needed to… this seatbelt was too constraining. I needed to get away. To curl into a ball. Maybe if I made myself as small as possible, I’d sink and I’d be able to just find myself. To enjoy the sensations, not be overwhelmed by them. If I could just shrink the area, I’d be able to ride it out, I knew. There was just too much. Pleasure, pain, joy, sadness, anger, hate, love, fear, greed, hope, compassion, concern, everything… it welled up from everywhere.

“Fai, talk with me…. And buckle your seatbelt again, damnit.” Drew reached over and pulled the seatbelt over me, buckling it into place. I grabbed his hand, pulling it to my chest, holding it there. “Faith, what are you doing?”

“Drew… I need…” If I just could… I didn’t want… well, I sorta did, but not in the car. Drew was special to me, and I needed… I needed a lifeline. Touching him, his concern and… well, his care for me, they shone brightly to me. He just…

“Mmm… Let’s get to Harry’s, Fai. I need my hand.” Drew tugged his hand away from my chest, brushing against… Well, it felt nice, but as Drew pulled away, I couldn’t… they were back. I looked out the window, and there… I could see someone. She was… I could feel her loneliness amongst the cacophony of emotion coming from everywhere else. She longed for something, but I couldn’t tell what. She was thin, pale, but she’d paused and she kept walking. I couldn’t see her hair under her hat, nor could I see her arms, but… she seemed familiar. She was… I didn’t know who, or what, but she… I… a bit of hope flared from her, and she ran away into the sea…

Whimpering again, I tried to fight against the current. I couldn’t swim here. There were no levies, no boats to pull me out. Where was my sister? She had to be somewhere among this sea of emotion, this sea of lights…

“Fai, what are you doing?” Drew reached over me, rolling up my window. He was here. He was right there, and I needed to… I wrapped my arms around him, and I pressed my lips against his, kissing him. After a few seconds, he started kissing back, and oh, it felt so nice. He was right here, and he was pulling me from the sea. He was going to let me focus, to have me here with him and I was going to just… I was going to show him. Wait… No… Why was he pulling away? I groaned in frustration. “Faith, come on. Just hold on. Stay with me. We’ll get you behind your boss’s wards. Maybe they’ll help block out what’s happening to you. Plus, Molly will be there.”

“Mmm…” I groaned. He was supposed to be my lifeline. I was going to wash away. I was just… Maybe the snow that was falling would have helped me. Was there a reason I shouldn’t just open the door here? I mean, we weren’t at a stoplight, but I was pretty sure that there was… something. I could. There was a focus of… Huh. That was weird. It was… a current of… was Will an actual emotion? It felt like something was there, just… It was… Oh, that was something else. Oh dear. Oh… that was something nice and… Fuck. I needed to just get out into that snow. Maybe if I got under it, it would cool me down enough. It was too hot in this car. “Drew…”

“Almost there, Faith. Stay with me.” Drew looked at me, and I returned the gaze, but I still avoided his eyes. We hadn’t soulgazed yet, and… “Your lips… Fai, are you cold?”

I shook my head. “Too hot… Need…” I stripped the hoodie off, leaving just the dress. Kicking off the shoes, I started to remove my stockings, only to be stopped when Drew placed his hand on mine.

“Fai, stop. Please.” Drew messed with some things on the dashboard, and the air kicked in. “We’re very close, just… stay dressed, please.”

_Fai, are you alright?_ Wait, that was Molly. Where was Molly? I just… Oh fuck, that wasn’t right. Why was there a surge of… a mix between pleasure and pain and… okay, that wasn’t right. Felt weird. Made my… _Fai, answer me._

“Molly?” I knew I heard her. Where was she? I just… Gah. Why…? When had I gotten in Drew’s car? Why wasn’t… Weren’t we just at Mac’s? I swore we had just left. Oh. Wait, no, the vampire. Wait, did I… God. Why was it just… It was flowing and there was too much. I could. I needed my sister. Or I needed Drew. _Drew, where are you?_

“No, Molly should be where we’re going, Fai.” Drew squeezed my leg, and I wanted him to squeeze higher. There was just so much that he could… and I would just let him. I… He’d called me his _girlfriend_ , and I could feel how he was just… His care, his honor… He was just… Drew was mine.

_Fai, why would you… Faith, what happened?_ Molly again? She sounded worried… and felt worried… at least that’s where that strong channel of worry came from. God. I just… maybe I could share with her? Maybe she could help somehow? I just needed to open… my… mind… to her… I could show her… _Fai, what is this? Why are you…? How? Fai… what happened to you?_

Drew pulled into a parking lot covered in fresh snow, carefully coasting into the spot. Snow continued to fall outside, and I wanted to go out into it and just let it fall on me. Maybe if it did that, there could be an iceberg, something to hold onto among these emotions. “We’re here, Fai… We’re at Harry’s.”

I smiled at Drew, and then I whimpered again. Fuck. It was… The buildings nearby. I could feel their residents. Mrs. Spunkelcrief… she was peaceful, sleeping…. The Willoughbys too… I knew it was them… and oh… there weren’t… Oh, Harry’s neighborhood just felt… the ocean was only a sea here… It wasn’t as overwhelming, but I could still feel them pressing down, them just being there.

“Fai! Drew, what happened to her?” Molly! She was right there, standing outside the door of the car. When had she walked up? She just appeared. And Drew stood next to her… How? When did he learn to teleport? “And why is her dress halfway off?”

“Let’s get her inside, and I’ll tell you,” Drew said, reaching in and grabbing me. I wrapped my arms around his neck, lightly as he pulled me into a bridal carry. Oh, this was nice. “The vamp isn’t there, is he?”

“I don’t know where Thomas is,” Molly said as she led the way down the stairs while Drew carried me. “Stay back a sec, have to let us in.”

I snuggled into Drew a bit. He was here. Molly was here. I could see them. Feel them. I couldn’t see everyone else I felt, but I could see Molly and Drew. I could hear them. They were lighthouses, docks leading to the shoreline. Harry’s wards hummed against my skin, and I felt when Molly lowered the wards and opened the door.

Kitty! Mister slammed into Drew’s leg, and then he stepped outside. I couldn’t… Drew stepped inside, and I was ashore. Oh… I wasn’t in the middle of the sea anymore, once I passed the Threshold. I could still feel it, beating upon the shore, but it wasn’t overwhelming anymore. The combined emotions of the city weren’t there. I snuggled closer to Drew again, but he placed me on the couch, laying down. Mister apparently had decided to come back inside before Molly closed the steel door, letting the wards come back up.

“Drew, what happened to her?” Molly asked.

“Moll!” I giggled. God, it felt so good to not have those other emotions weighing on me. I felt good. Nice and tingly. And oh, I just wanted Drew and my sister to do things with me. “Drew called me his girlfriend!”

“There was a vampire. One of those batty ones,” Drew said. “We managed to kill it, but I think it did something to her.”

“Stars and stones,” Molly cursed. “How much, Fai? What did the vampire do?”

I shivered. The vampire hadn’t done nearly enough. It was going to do so much more, but then it… “Called me _worthless_ ,” I growled out. “Licked my chest… and… it was going to….”

Oh… God, I felt so much rage coming off of both my sister and Drew at that. I sat up and walked, wobbling as I did so, wrapping my arms around both of them in a hug. “I’m ‘kay. Just want… Mmm… Feels nice.”

I snuggled my head between the two of them.

“She’s acting high,” Drew said. “But then she said things were overwhelming in the car. Something about being able to feel everyone. And then she… Never mind.”

“Fuck,” Molly swore. She never swore. “She’s acting high because that’s what Red Court saliva does to a victim. Makes you high enough that they can drink without their victims resisting. And it’s addictive too.”

“Feel so nice…” I said, my skin tingling. I just wanted to share it with them too. Way too hot in here though. I moved to the couch so I could better get leverage on my dress. Well, Andi’s dress, but it looked good on me.

“Fai probably would have let the vampire drink from her, but he called her _useless_ ,” Molly said in explanation.

“She blasted him with a bunch of lightning after that. It was wider than I’ve seen her do.”

“She’s not wearing her gloves. Probably couldn’t focus it.” Molly turned to me. “Fai, I’m going to go down into the lab. I’m going to see if I can’t get you something to help end this faster… and do something about the addictive properties. See if we can’t flush your system completely of it.”

“No mind magic,” I said suddenly. “Mind magic’s bad.”

“I remember what Harry said,” Molly replied to me, smiling. “I’m going to talk with the skull about potions. Stay up here with Drew, okay?”

“Kay.” I started tugging on my dress, only to have it being tugged another way by a black fuzzball at my feet. The puppy then jumped onto my lap and nuzzled against my hands. Mouse was very adorable and soft. He felt like he was worried about me, but I wasn’t going to do much more than snuggle with Drew. If we had a first time, I wanted it special. I could make it special for us up here, and it would have felt amazing, but Harry’s couch probably wasn’t the best place. Maybe if Justine were here… I could make it so that Thomas could be with her. That’d be nice of me…

Molly looked to Drew. “Drew, I’ll know if anything happens. We’re friends, and I like the idea of the two of you together. I trust you, but this needs to be said. Do not take advantage of her when she’s like this.”

“Molly, nothing’s going to happen,” Drew said. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t try and come down after you. I don’t think she’s got the coordination right now to even try without falling.”

Molly nodded. “Okay.”

Then she was… where’d she go? I didn’t see her walk off. Wait, Drew was sitting next to me, and... when had the blanket gotten around me? I was just… I swear… I was… Well, it still felt nice. The blanket was soft, and Mouse was softer, and Drew was warm, and I snuggled into him. He had protected me. I was the wizard in training, and I was the one protected by a normal mortal, but it was Drew. Drew didn’t have a holy sword or magic; he wasn’t a scion or any sort of supernatural creature. Drew was my friend though, and he was special.

My eyes drifted to the umbrella stand and what appeared to be a cane within it. No, Drew didn’t need anything like that. I shifted slightly, pulling the blanket off. It was too hot. I needed to cool down a bit.

“Fai, what are you doing? You need to be covered up, you’re freezing.”

“Too hot,” I said, gently pushing Mouse off my lap. “Need to cool down… “

“Faith, your lips are blue. You’re cold. Sit here by the fire with the blanket on.” Drew placed his powerful hands on my bare shoulders. I still wore the bra that Andi had brought. She was surprisingly the same size as Molly and I. “Careful, you’ll wreck the bandages…”

“No! I’m going to…” I struggled against Drew, turning toward him. “I need to cool down! It’s too hot!”

“Fai, come on…stop just…” I hooked a foot under his ankle and pulled. He went down backward, pulling me with him, such that I landed on top. My face was inches from his own. Oh, we could just… well, that wouldn’t really cool down, but if he wanted to be warm… he wanted me warm, maybe… maybe there was a way.

The tumblers on the front door’s lock turned, and the door opened, revealing an all too good looking man. He spotted us when he stepped in, and he cleared his throat.

“You two know I sleep out here, right?” asked Thomas as he walked closer to the living room. “Use Harry’s room if you’re going to do that. Lord knows it hasn’t seen any action in years.”

Mmm… Now that didn’t sound like a bad idea. Wait… was it?

  



	22. Interlude: Molly Carpenter

I wished Harry were here. He’d know what to do; he’d be able to handle everything we did today in stride, and he’d laugh it off like it was just another day in the grind. My sister and I? We really didn’t have that luxury. We’d been training under Harry for nearly two years now, learning magic, and everything that came with it. Laws, seven of them, to prevent us from going crazy from using some sort of black magic. My sister took those laws in stride, along with me, but she gave me some odd looks whenever the subject of mind magic came up. I knew why. Or at least I could guess.

Faith is… how to best put it… well, she’s unique. She remembers bits and pieces of a past life, a life where she somehow experienced all of what happened to us in a story. There probably was something about me and mind magic in the story, something she keeps worrying about whenever the subject comes up, but things are quite obviously different here. I haven’t had the heart to tell her that I’ve figured it out, that I can guess why she worries, but she really shouldn’t. While she and I have a bit of a talent when it comes to dealing with the mind, Harry’s instilled in us the reasons we shouldn’t mess with someone’s head. Beyond what it could do to us, there was also what it did to the person we were messing with. Even with the best of possible intentions, it could really mess someone up. I know neither of us wanted that to happen, so we wouldn’t. We’d find alternate ways to help that avoided breaking the Laws.

Let’s just say that rules… Well, they weren’t always meant to be broken, but they often were meant to be bent. An example would be today. As far as Lieutenant Murphy knows, we have been nowhere near her investigation. We’ve independently followed leads that only we—and Harry—could glean. Lieutenant Murphy might have been able to talk to Doctor Butters, get the idea of what had happened out of him, but she wouldn’t really be able to do much with it. No murder weapon. If the necromancer was smart, there wouldn’t even be a trace that she was there to pick up on, and I doubted that she was dumb, given she hid her face from even the minions she wanted to hire. Hell, even her drummer hid his face.

I wished Harry were here. He’d probably already have it worked out who the necromancer was, what her goals were beyond the book that Faith had picked up for some reason. I loved my sister, but sometimes… Sometimes she could do some really stupid things. She should have just destroyed the book and left last night, and instead she managed to not only get herself arrested, but attacked by ghouls at the police station while I felt every single minute of heart pounding fear. She hadn’t fully shunted everything over to me, but… okay, let’s just put it this way. Hostility _hurts_. Faith and I, over the past two years have been working to overcome a significant barrier to us fighting… well, anything, really. We’d always been a bit empathic, nonmagically so, and it only improved and got stronger as we learned more. Frankly, if it weren’t for having to fight Cecelia and that… thing… she’d turned into, I doubt either of us would ever want to try to fight.

We needed to though. There was just too much out there. So we built up safeguards, a type of shield built around the bond we had with each other. We could block out everything else if need be, but Faith and I would never keep anything from each other. Well, one or two things…

There was a reason I let her and Drew have tonight alone after we finished at Billy and Georgia’s, and it was more than wanting to get a head start on the research. Of course, Faith had to get attacked again, and… God, I wanted to make sure my sister was alright. She always wanted to make sure I was safe, that the jawas were safe, that her friends were safe. Fai has a bit of a martyr complex. Something that hopefully wouldn’t kill her one day.

I don’t know what I’d do without her.

I looked at my sister as she sat on the couch. She wasn’t shivering, so why were her lips blue? I hadn’t lent her any make-up for the evening, but Andi had. I was pretty sure she’d been wearing a deep red. At least she still had her clothes on. With Drew in the living room to watch her, I was pretty sure she’d keep them on, or at least I hoped. She’d been high on Red venom before, but never this much. There had to be something in Harry’s lab that could help her, or at least there had to be something the skull could mention.

I hadn’t moved the rug over the trapdoor back to cover it when I left the lab to go get Faith inside, so all I needed to do was climb down the ladder. The candles on the work bench were still burning so all I did when I was at the bottom was pull back on the robe. Harry’s sub-basement was _cold_ , but it was perfect for doing wizarding work. Anything loud down here wouldn’t bother the neighbors at all.

“Ah, Molly, back down already?” Bob the skull asked, the orange flames of his eyes leering at me. “Everything alright, memsahib?”

I barely restrained myself from glaring at the skull. Perverted thing that it was, it was also brilliant and could probably give what I needed right now. “No, everything’s not alright, Bob. Faith got attacked by a Red Court vampire.”

Bob’s eyes seemed to narrow—I’ve long since given up trying to figure that out—and he said, “Oh, that’s not good. Reds are dangerous, especially to apprentices like yourselves. Heck, even Harry is wary around them.”

Except when he goes and casually slaughters a bunch of them due to an attack in a ballpark, according to Fai. Harry could be scary, but that honestly just made him all the more attractive. I know Fai sees it too, but hopefully with her having Drew, we wouldn’t have to share. We could though.

“She survived, and the vamp didn’t,” I said simply. “But the vampire managed to get a bunch of venom in her system.”

And it brought down her shields. God, I barely felt a fraction of what she must have been feeling, and that was through the wards. When I went out to get her, I had to actively focus to keep all the extra energy out, and that was _hard_. My sister… if I couldn’t get this venom out of her… and get her shields back up, I think we’d both go insane. Maybe if we linked up, we could share shields enough that the two of us wouldn’t be overwhelmed together, but then we’d both be high, and that’d still be an issue.

“Oh, that’s… Well, that’s unpleasant. It wears off eventually.”

“But not without side effects,” I said. “It’s addictive, and I know Fai doesn’t want that.”

“Yes… that’s true… well, I suppose there’s… No. Well, it might work.” Bob’s eyes flickered.

“What might work?” I needed to help Fai. The amount she’d ingested, there was no way we could go home with her like this. Mom and Daddy would immediately spot it, and then we’d have to explain what we did today. I didn’t want them to know that Faith had summoned the Winter Queen, that we’d fought ghouls… Well, maybe we could get Daddy to help with the necromancer, but that was something we needed to talk with him specifically for. Fighting alongside Daddy would be nice though. We’d be much safer.

“There’s a potion that should be able to help, assuming that we have all the ingredients for it here and you have the ability to brew it.” Bob looked over the shelves from his perch on Fai’s table. “It looks like we might.”

“So, are you going to tell me the recipe?” Faith’s sanity was at stake here. The jawas would never forgive me if I couldn’t manage to help my twin. Hell, _I’d_ never forgive me. It was my responsibility as her elder sister to take care of her, and that was one thing I took seriously. Faith kept trying to take care of everyone; someone needed to take care of her. Together we could take care of Harry. Or Drew. Or both. Whichever. Becca would have been fine too, but she just… I don’t know. I thought she’d understood when she was my friend.

“Well, that depends,” Bob said. God, what fresh hell was he going to ask now?

“On what?” I asked.

“Flash me. You can’t let me out, so flash me.”

“I’ve got a better idea. I’ll go get a hammer. And I’ll start pounding at the skull until you give the recipe. With my girly arms, who knows how many hits I’ll get in before it shatters?” I smiled widely, giving the skull a crazy-eyes look that scared my younger siblings. Save for Faith, of course. Hard to get scared when the two of us have the same face.

“Okay, maybe not flash me… a book. Promise to bring me a book, and I’ll tell you.” Bob must have believed my threat. Good. I didn’t really want to smash the skull, but the key to a good threat was being willing to carry it out.

“Done.” I folded my arms. “Now what do I need to do?”

“Well, first get out the burners.” I did so, pulling them out along with some glassware that Harry had. I ignited them without magic, using a little spark lighter that Harry kept down here for that purpose, but I didn’t put the glassware onto the burner yet. “Good, you know a bit. I’m only going to have you make the one potion, even though there’s room for two. Unless there’s another you think you might need.”

I shook my head. I just needed to get Fai safe and better. “Let’s get this started.”

“First, before we do, I’d probably be a poor teacher if I didn’t review with you what you know about potion ingredients. So go on, tell me.”

I grit my teeth. Faith was up there with Drew, and I could feel her spacing in and out. She just… Fuck, I think she just removed the dress. I’d need to check her bandages when I got back up there to make sure she hadn’t ripped open her wounds again. “Fine. Potions are made up of eight ingredients. This is every potion, not a specific potion. There’s the liquid base to the potion, an ingredient for each of the five senses, sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, one to engage the mind, and one to engage the spirit.”

“Additionally, you need to be providing your will to shape the potion as you brew it,” Bob said. “This potion in particular was originally designed by a Council member during the last war the White Council fought with the Red Court. It forcibly ends the effect of the venom and removes all traces of addiction from the system of the person who imbibes it.”

I frowned. “That sounds a lot like mind affecting magic to me. Doesn’t that violate the Fourth Law?”

“The Council used this potion themselves, or similar variants,” Bob said. “When it comes to the Laws of Magic, memsahib, the Council chooses what to punish and what not to. Given that the potion has to willingly be imbibed by the victim, and there is no direct magic link to the person who brewed the potion, there’s no danger of a backlash. It’s not black magic by any definition.”

“But it is… gray.” I paused for a second. I needed Fai back up because she and I needed to get this sorted out. She couldn’t do that while high on Red Court venom. She’d forgive me, and it wouldn’t hurt her. It’d help her. She’d even be taking it herself. “Okay, lay it on me.”

“Well, first you need the base. Something pure, like what you want her system to be.”

“Purified water,” I said, pulling the jug off the shelf. I opened the jug and poured it into the beaker. I then placed the beaker on the burner on low so it could simmer.

“Good. Next, something for vision. I think in my magazine up there, there was an anti-drinking advertisement. Page 32. Tear it out, tear it up, and put it in.”

“Right.” I grabbed the issue of Playboy—ugh, I really didn’t want to know what the skull did with this—off the shelf and flipped through it to find the page. It had an advertisement for Alcoholics Anonymous on it, letting people know that there was help out there. I tore out the ad, then tore it into tiny pieces, dropping it into the water and stirring.

“Okay. Now sound. This is a tricky one… You need something that sounds pure.”

I nodded, letting my eyes scan the shelf, up until I came across a small conch shell. “The ocean sounds pretty pure, doesn’t it?”

“Close enough,” Bob agreed. So I pulled the shell off the shelf and put it in the pestle, grinding it up before putting it into the potion.

“Next is smell, right?”

“Exactly. Grab some lavender out of that bag on the third shelf to the right.” Bob said.

“Wouldn’t a lotus work better?” I asked.

“Yes, but Harry doesn’t have any lotuses. Grab the lavender.” Bob’s eyes burned orange like tiny flickering flames as I grabbed some of the lavender and crushed the petals into the potion, which took on a nice purple hue.

“For taste, salt, right?” I asked. Salt was traditionally a purifier, and if this potion was about purity to help remove the addiction, it should work.

“Yes, and for touch… light a match and throw it in.” I nodded, grabbing the salt shaker and a matchbook. I did the salt first, and then lit the match, dropping it into the water as it was burning. A small gout of flame kicked up from the brewing potion, as it turned green. If that wasn’t ominous… I hadn’t even started adding the magic in yet.

“Okay, so what for mind and spirit?” I asked.

“For the mind… I think Harry has… yes, shelf four, on the right. The unsolved maze.” I grabbed it and tore up the maze, putting it inside. “Same shelf, two items to the left. Grab a pearl for the soul. They represent purity.”

I nodded, grabbing the small pearl and placing it into the potion, stirring. “Now?”

“Now, push as much magic as you can into it. The more you put in, the swifter the potion will be done, but it will still take a bit,” said Bob. “This potion was designed to be brewed quickly for cases just like your sister.”

I nodded, and I gathered my will. Potions were more Harry’s and Faith’s thing, but I needed to be able to do this for my sister. So I would. It’s not that they were hard, but the constant application of magic over the course of the end of the brew was necessary. I turned the burner lower so the potion could simmer, and I considered.

Fai said the vampire called her worthless, and she’d zapped it, likely after a freak out. My sister hated the idea of being useless or worthless, and I think it stemmed partially from what had happened two years ago. We lost three good friends that day and we couldn’t do anything to help them. No, in fact, we’d had to face down one of them as she surrendered herself to something… God, it was terrible. Cecelia had been closer to Fai than me, but we both felt her loss.

Faith didn’t like to talk about it, so I didn’t push, but I could feel it when I was with her. When certain things came up. She didn’t like visiting Jason or Glenn in the hospital either, using the excuse that there was the chance she’d break their life support. I sent flowers once a month from both of us. I didn’t want to break their life support either.

I continued to pour will into the potion, while trying to feel for Fai upstairs. She’d gone still again. I thought Drew had her on the couch, possibly in a blanket. When the potion finished brewing, I’d bring it up, and hopefully she’d be aware enough to drink it. I’d call home afterward to let Mom and Daddy know we’d be late.

I wished Harry was here. He’d probably have already had the potion brewing the moment I told him about the vampire Fai ran into. Then he’d probably get into lecture mode once we were all together, but it’d be worth it because Fai would have already been cured. I couldn’t let myself dwell on it. I was doing what needed to be done because I couldn’t ask Mr. Wizard to find my sister again. I had to find her myself.

“And that,” I said as I poured the finished potion into a water bottle that Harry kept around for just that. “Is just what I’ll do.”


	23. Chapter Twenty-Two

I honestly didn’t feel like moving from my current position. It was just too comfy to lay on top of Drew, and I didn’t care that Thomas was standing there. He could join us if he wanted. I mean, he had a nice snuggly vampire body too, and he was a nice vampire. Well, as nice as vampires could get. Besides, later on, I could always do something with his sister to make up for it and stuff. Or would that be bad? I mean, he hadn’t been with Justine in a while. I know that Thomas must have been hungry, and I could have fed him right there, together with Drew, and he’d be… Well, there was definitely something I could do with Drew that could at least feed Thomas a little with the bleed-off, and it’d be fun for everyone involved. I mean… this was so nice and…

Wait. Wasn’t Thomas standing over there, looking at Drew and I? I mean… over there. I whipped my head around, sitting up a little off the couch that I was now laying on. I could have sworn I had been lying on Drew, about to start kissing him. I mean, it would have been so nice, and I—ooh puppy. Mouse was laying on my chest, his body heat and fur seeping through the blanket that was over me. I could feel Drew’s concern, and Thomas… he was so hungry. Just what was he doing to himself here? His concern shone through his Hunger’s… well, hunger. He wasn’t killing himself, but he was definitely undernourished for a vampire. I could have fed him. But it would hurt Drew, and I didn’t want to do that.

“I’m sorry, Drew,” I said. He needed to know that I didn’t want to hurt him if he was going to be with me. Oh, and I needed to apologize to Molly. I’d share Drew with her if the two of them wanted, and we’d figure it out, but right now, Drew was mine. I didn’t want to be super selfish, but it was nice having something that was mine and not ours. Especially since Drew was so nice and understood everything about me and Molly, and I wanted to…

“Sorry for what, Fai?” Drew walked over from… somewhere. I think he walked anyway. Maybe he teleported. Man, wouldn’t teleportation be a cool spell? It had to violate a law somehow. Maybe something like the eighth or ninth law of magic. “Thou shall not learn the art of instantaneous transmission from place to place. For thou wilt be scattered amongst the planes.”

I giggled, but turned somber on seeing Drew’s face. “I’m sorry, Drew. I don’t wanna hurt you.”

“You haven’t, Fai. You won’t,” Drew said. He was so nice, but I couldn’t help but feel he was wrong. He didn’t know… everything yet. I needed to tell him at some point, but I didn’t want him to hate me. I didn’t think he would, but it would kill me if he did.

“But I might…” I said. “I don’t wanna, but I might…”

“You won’t.” Drew bent down and moved to kiss my forehead, but I bent my head back and captured his lips with my own. So nice. Why had I waited so long to do this before? Because I was a straight man in my last life? Because I still liked women now? Drew was special. Drew was my Drew. My Drew.

“Please, again, for my sanity, if you’re going to take advantage of her in that state, Warren, take her into Harry’s room. But know that I’m not going to keep Molly from acting upon her instincts,” Thomas said after clearing his throat. I felt his Hunger flare up and I broke off the kiss with a gasp.

“Why hadn’t Molly come back up yet?” Drew ground out, glaring over the couch at what I assumed was Thomas. Thomas had to be back there, somewhere.

“Potions take time. I’m surprised Faith’s still afflicted, though.”

“What do you mean?” Drew asked, from where he stood next to me. I started to reach out for him, but Mouse moved and instead I reached up to pet the puppy. So adorable. So smart. Much fluffy.

Mouse licked my hands as they got near his muzzle, and I giggled again.

“Well, it’s been a bit since she got hit by the venom, right?” Thomas asked.

“Yeah…”

“I swallowed some!” I called out. “The douchebag spit in my mouth before he…” God, was that really what he was going to try to do? I’d have let him too. Just to keep feeling the way I was feeling, and my tingling skin… Oh, it was so nice, and I wanted to feel more like this if I could. Just… the way everything tensed up, the way everything tingled… If I didn’t have to deal with all the _everything_ outside, I could just be like this forever, and it’d be so nice. I’d make Drew feel nice and Thomas feel nice and Molly feel nice just so we could all feel nice.

“… Warren, did you see where the Red licked her.”

“Yes, I did, vamp,” Drew said, and then he spoke quieter. When had he managed to get over near Thomas? He was right by me.

“You killed it then?” Thomas radiated anger now, but not at Drew. Why was he angry?

“Blew its head off.”

“Good.” Satisfaction.

Oh… Molly was getting closer. I felt her approaching, and I could hear her shoes on the ladder up from the basement. Oh, she was concerned, and worried, and I didn’t want her to worry. “I’m sorry, Moll!”

I sat up… Mouse was on the floor next to me, not blocking me from doing so, and the blanket covering me slid down. Molly hadn’t quite made it out the hatch yet.

“I’m sorry, Moll!” I called again, and I could see Drew and Thomas sitting down at a table that Harry had set up to eat off of as a group so we didn’t have to eat while on the couches.

“What are you sorry for, Fai?” Molly asked as she made it up. Was that a water bottle in her hands? It looked like one, sure. Was I thirsty? I wasn’t sure if I was thirsty or not. Wait, Moll had asked me a question.

“Sorry for worrying you, Moll.” There. That was what I needed to tell her. She needed to know that I never wanted her to worry about me, and I wanted to make sure that she was safe.

“Fai, it’s not your fault.” Molly walked over to me and sat down next to me on the couch, letting me lean back against her. “Here, drink this. It should help a bit.”

She handed me the water bottle, and I leaned back my head. “What is it?”

“Potion. Bob helped me make it for you. It should clear up the Red Court venom’s effects.” Molly ran her hand through my hair.

“Wait, are you sure it’s safe?” Thomas asked.

“Supposedly it was used by the Council for this sort of thing,” said Molly. “Drink up, Fai.”

I looked at the bottle in my hand. It felt so nice right now, but Molly, Drew and Thomas were so concerned about me. If the bottle helped and it made it so that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed stepping outside… Yeah, it was worth it. The bottle.

I stuck the sports cap in my mouth, popped it open and squeezed the potion into my mouth. I swallowed as soon as it hit my mouth to avoid as much of the taste as possible, but I could still taste some of it as it passed over my tongue. It was... well, hard to describe. It tasted like what orange juice tasted like when you brushed your teeth before drinking it. It wasn’t entirely nasty, but it was nasty enough that I grimaced while swallowing.

When I finished swallowing the last drop, I gagged, but nothing came up. Instead, I could feel a fog lifting from my mind… my skin stopped tingling, well, mostly anyway, and… I could feel a lot just… I think I was sobering up. Forcibly so.

I blinked a few times, to get some of the cobwebs out. God, I hoped I didn’t do anything too embarrassing. I licked my lips.

“Right, Fai… I’ll help out a little here,” Molly said and she leaned forward to place her chin on my shoulder. We closed our eyes and opened them again, looking around the room. Yes, we were clean of the venom now, we could feel that. God, it would have been weird if we had done this while one of our parts was affected. We weren’t even sure how that would work, and until we were twenty-one, we had no real way to experiment with it both safely and legally.

We needed to rework a few things though, make sure that the mental frameworks were properly there. God, whatever the venom did messed up so much. We were going to be a terrible mess when we got home, but at least there were clothes to wear, and Harry’s shower worked, even if it didn’t provide hot water…. Screw it. We were going to take a shower when we got home and get changed in the bathroom. We’d just have to make sure Mom wasn’t there.

“Faith, are you okay?” Thomas asked. “Did the potion work?”

“I’m pretty sure it did, vamp. Girls, you want to tell him?” Drew looked at us. He always was perceptive, and we liked that about him. He’d called one of us his girlfriend this evening, and he was worth it. He’d killed a vampire for us. Worth it.

“We’re fine, guys.” We lightly patted our injured stomach, making sure that it wasn’t bleeding again. The bandages looked like they needed to be changed, but we’d have to do that once we’d separated or get Drew to do it. With how hungry Thomas was, we didn’t want him touching us for everyone’s sake. “We’ve got quite a bit to talk about… now that the venom’s done.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Thomas said, clearly suppressing a shudder. You’d think he’d be used to us by now, but maybe not. Still, we supposed that it might be easier for him and Drew if we just let it be, so we closed our eyes.

I opened my eyes, smiling. “Right, so we really do—”

“—need to talk.” Molly peeked around at my bandages, carefully running a hand along them. She was careful to not hurt me as she did, but she wanted to be sure of something. “Drew, where are—”

“—my clothes?” I smiled up at my sister.

“The dress is by your feet, Fai. I don’t know where the stockings ended up; I wasn’t paying attention.”

“So, want to tell me how you managed to get hurt, Faith?” Thomas asked.

“Ghoul,” Molly and I said in unison, but I continued. “I didn’t quite get completely out of the way.”

“What the heck were you doing near a ghoul?”

I grimaced. “That’s what—”

“—we need to talk about.” Molly’s face matched my own. “We’ve got a—”

“—necromancer problem.” I frowned. “The vampire said something about… Drew, where’s the phone number?”

“I’ve got it here.” Drew started to come over to the couch, but I stood, shaking my head.

“I’ll come get it from you.” I walked over to my… fuck, was he my boyfriend or my friend? Whichever, I walked over to him and took the number. “Moll, Drew… mind filling Thomas in?”

Molly looked to me. “Fai, I could make the call if you’re not up for it.”

I shook my head. “I’ve got it, Moll. Let Thomas know what happened.” _Minus Mab, please. I don’t really want that getting back to Harry yet._

_That’s… Fine. Right…_ Molly sighed. “If you’re sure, right.”

“Drew, you were there for part of it, please let him know.” I walked into the kitchen where the phone hung on the wall. God, I hoped that Harry had the long distance available to make this international call. I didn’t recognize the country code here, but I knew what I needed to do in order to dial out. Oh, wait. I blinked a couple times. Oh, that was a US number. Still, I didn’t recognize the area code.

I dialed the number on the paper, praying that it was the right number, and the phone crackled a bit before it started ringing. Great. Harry’s lines were never good at the best of times. Assuming this was the right number, I’d have to tell them fast. The phone rang once, twice… a third… a fourth… before finally being answered.

“Hello?” The voice was male, with a slight accent that I didn’t quite recognize from the word.

“Ah… hello, sir. God, I hope this is the right number,” I said.

“What number were you hoping to reach, miss?” Ah, that was the accent. Sounded like the guy was from Rhode Island rather than the Midwest from what I heard.

“I was hoping to talk to a representative of the Wardens,” I said, clearing my throat. I couldn’t let them know that I was Harry’s apprentice without him here. I didn’t want to ruin anything for him. “I’m a practitioner in Chicago.”

“Who is this? How did you get this number?” Empathy didn’t work through telephones, but I didn’t need to be an empath to hear the suspicion in his voice. Shit, was there some sort of protocol I was supposed to be following? Why hadn’t I thought of that when talking with Mac?

“There’s a necromancer raising zombies in Chicago. We need Wardens here.” I blurted out. God, I hoped they believed me.

“Miss, who are you? If this is a prank, you’ll regret it.” Okay, yeah, the Rhode Island accent was clear now. “If this _isn’t_ a prank, I suggest contacting Harry Dresden. His name’s supposed to be in the phone book.”

Fuck. I really… I just… Fuck. I needed to get him to believe. “Please, if you’re a Warden representative, let your superiors know. Dresden’s not even in Chicago right now! I’ve _tried_ contacting him.”

“Miss, you’ll need to be more specific… Who are you? Where are you? What is the situation you’re reporting?” The man sounded frustrated, and slightly in pain. Just what the fuck was going on over there?

“There’s a necromancer who turned ghouls into zombies,” I said. “And I think she’s an—” the phone cut out with a click. “apprentice of Kemmler. Fuck.” I couldn’t hear anything from the other end, and I tried pushing down the receiver’s button a few times. Damn. The phone was dead. I couldn’t call back now. I’d have to try again later. Damnit. Maybe Wardens _would_ show up in town, and maybe they wouldn’t, but I’d tried to get their help. Shit. If Harry were here, we might not even have needed the Council’s help, but they’d listen to him if we did. _He_ knew the protocol. Not for the first time since he was gone, I wanted him here with us.

Before going back to the living room, I went to get my stash of spare clothes, and I put them on. I kept a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt stashed here just in case of clothing-related accidents, but God, I hoped that there wouldn’t be any more today at least. Shit. No Wardens, or at least no timeline on when the Wardens would show up… meant we needed more information.

“—after the book?” Thomas finished asking as I got back into the living room.

“Good question,” I said, interpreting his question as a why question. “There are quite a few copies of that particular book… but she wanted something with _this specific_ _copy_.”

“Do you think she killed Maroni?” Drew asked.

I shrugged. “A heart still moving blood through it without beating or pumping… sounds like some sort of necromancy to me.”

“Just sounds wrong to me,” Molly said. “But yeah, she could have done it. I don’t know that there’s evidence to convict her.”

“And it’s not like a jail could hold any sort of necromancer anyway,” Thomas said. “Empty night. How’d your call with the Wardens go?”

“Disconnected mid-call, and the phone’s dead. They might come or they might not. The guy on reception referred me to Harry.”

“Damn.” Thomas frowned. “I couldn’t get much out of Lara either. She can’t really talk to me much given my status with the family, but what she could tell me was that she’s avoiding Chicago until next January.”

“… A whole year?” I asked. “What’s she doing that’s taking a whole year?”

“Not getting involved with necromancers.” Thomas shrugged. “Any idea who this person was for certain?”

“No. Her face was covered by her cloak, and she wasn’t the one who attended Bianca’s party.” I stared at the fire. “I’m not sure _why_ she hid her face then if she’s…”

I shook my head, and I made my way to Drew and sat in his lap. Drew smiled at the action, but then he frowned. “If she’s what, Fai?”

“Okay, so, from my… well, my stuff, I know that Kemmler had at least three disciples: Cowl, Grevane, and Capiorcorpus, the Corpsetaker. Cowl and Grevane are male; Corpsetaker is whatever the heck it feels like.”

“So you think that she’s Corpsetaker?” Molly asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “If she is, why hide her face when she could just try and steal one of ours? Why stand on top of the building and just send her stupidly high range zombies in after us? Maybe Kemmler had more disciples.”

“Or, she could just be a run of the mill necromancer,” said Thomas. “They do exist.”

I shrugged, and then I tugged at my hair. “Gah. There’s just… Moll, did you look at the book?”

Molly nodded. “I couldn’t really find anything unique about it, but maybe that’s because I don’t have another copy to compare it to.”

“Maybe there’s a map or something in it… to the real objective,” Drew said. “Because it really does seem stupid to go after a book that there are multiple copies of.”

I nodded, and then I yawned. “Bock Ordered Books tomorrow, and then we call Lieutenant Murphy.”

“Yeah… she needs to know about this too,” Molly said, suppressing her own yawn.

“Right, I’ll get the two of you home,” Drew said. “We’ll come here after church tomorrow to figure out the next steps.”

I smiled at my boyfriend, and then I gave him a hug. “Okay.”

Saying goodbye to Thomas, the three of us made our way out to Drew’s car, book in tow. I guess it was lucky that the necromancer had no clue we were Harry’s apprentices because we still held the book. We’d just have to make sure to be careful whether the Wardens came or not.

I was sure we’d figure something out to stop her. Wardens or no Wardens. We would prevail.

Probably.

  



	24. Chapter Twenty-Three

I woke later that morning to Molly brushing my hair out of my eyes. She must have woken first, as I could see the smile on her face when she looked at me. My hand lightly brushed over the bandages on my stomach, and I gave the tiniest of winces. Fuck. That’d just… Ow. While I hadn’t expected the wound to heal overnight, I’d hoped that it would at least stop hurting when I placed the lightest of pressures upon it beyond what the bandages were doing. At least it wasn’t bleeding. I’d feel that, even with it being wrapped and gauzed up.

“We’ll change out your bandages in the shower,” Molly said. “We’ll also need to get a full change of clothes ready so that we can change after the shower. Have to look presentable for Mass.”

“We can pack a backpack with some alternate clothes to change into afterward,” I said. “I don’t know if we want to go anywhere straight from St. Mary’s or if Mom’ll want us to have some sort of brunch.”

“Well, with Daddy…” Molly trailed off. _You know as well as I do what we probably need to do._

I nodded. _We’ll head over to Bock’s after church then. It’s not that far. We can even walk if Drew’s not wanting to drive the Ex Machina around after the damage it took yesterday._

“You should probably try the Wardens again, see if we can get them for longer than you were able to last night.” Molly and I rolled out of bed, my sister supporting me as I stood up. I didn’t really feel like I was going to fall over, but given the wound I had, it was best to be safe. Honestly, Mom would probably insist that I stay in bed if she knew, but there was too much that needed to be done. At least Molly’s injuries seemed to be healed up. Superficial injuries took less time to heal than deeper ones, anyway.

“Yeah, just need to use the phone while Mom is busy.” I said, glancing at our shut door. It was unlikely that one of the jawas would be listening without us being able to tell they were there, but old habits die hard. All it’d take is Danny or Mattie listening at the door for them to wonder why we might want to contact the Wardens... and mention it to Mom. Honestly, if Mom didn’t have to worry about keeping our younger siblings safe, I was pretty sure she’d be a good person to bring along with us to deal with the necromancer. Mom had been Daddy’s sparring partner for years, and she easily was as good as he was, minus the holy sword. It’s just… with our younger siblings being unprotected otherwise, it wasn’t a good idea. _Don’t want Mom finding out about the zombie-fucker._

Molly gave me a look of disgust, though I felt her mirth. _Really? Had to go with that image?_

_Thump-th-thump-th-thump. Squeaky squeaky. Booooobs._ I grinned at Molly, and in response, she threw one of the pillows off her bed at me. I ducked, laughing as I scooped up my own pillow for return fire. Molly tossed another pillow, and I ducked behind my bed, still made, as it flew overhead. She cupped her right hand and made a pulling motion, and I watched as the pillow hooked around, slamming into the back of my head.

Rubbing the back of my head, I smiled at my sister. Then I lifted my left hand and closed it into a fist, and all four pillows on the floor converged on her. Molly had gotten better with telekinesis since we started two years ago, but so had I. Molly managed to duck the first two pillows, but she snatched the other two out of the air with her hands, and then when the first two made a return trip, she smacked them out of the air, giggling as she did so.

Molly and I turned toward the door before it opened, feeling both Alicia and Amanda standing there, clearly wanting something. A mischievous glint came to our eyes, and the moment the door opened all the way, we let the pillows fly. Alicia reacted in an instant, pushing off the ground to kick the pillow out of the air toward us. Amanda, on the other hand, had no chance to survive. She made her time, but when the pillow hit her in the chest, she grabbed it. A wave of manic glee emitted from our younger sister, and she charged, pillow in hand.

Hobbit, having been walking down the hallway, likely from the bathroom considering the direction, clearly seemed torn between which faction to help. So she just charged instead, running for the pillow that Alicia kicked down.

We weren’t idle in this, as we each ran over to a little sister, scooping up a pillow along the way. We batted Hobbit’s pillow out of the way and reached down with a free hand to tickle under her arms. We barely had time to duck as Alicia’s pillow flew at our head, and we had to jump over Amanda’s. A grin plastered itself on our face, matching the grin on each of our sisters, and we continued. Pillow toss after pillow toss, pillow smack after pillow smack. We worked in a little bit of telekinesis as we did so, but in the end, we gave up on the pillows in favor of tickling. Which areas could we find that were most ticklish?

“Oh, Mandy…” We sang out, as we hung our giggling sister upside down while Alicia and Hobbit were busy with some more pillows… and each other. “Well you came right into our room without asking, but we let you anyway, oh Mandy…”

We tickled the soles of her feet for a few seconds, up until Alicia got a lucky hit in on me, right over the bandaged area, and I hissed out a garbled curse word in pain.

“Faith?” I felt my sister’s concern. The pillow fight had stopped as Hobbit and Amanda also looked questioning. “I’m sorry, are you okay?”

“Fai’s just a bit sore from some of the practical work we had to do for Harry yesterday,” Molly said. “Excuse me, I mean Bill.” She looked to Amanda, who managed to smile a bit through the concern.

“Are you sure?” Alicia asked, looking at me, where I was clutching. Fuck, I really didn’t like seeing my sisters worry at all.

“I’ll be fine. When Moll and I are done with our shower, we’ll be right as rain,” I said, smiling at Alicia. “It wasn’t that hard of a hit. Now if you’d kicked it, Miss Soccer Captain, that’d be a different story. But you just hit it with a pillow.”

“I’m sorry, Faith,” Alicia bowed her head, and I shook my own, wrapping my younger sister in a hug.

“It’s okay, Allie.” I ruffled her hair, and shortly what had started as a simple hug quickly became a family thing. Molly hugged Alicia from behind, Hobbit and Amanda hugged each of the sides, leaving our dark-haired sister the center of a blonde flower. Then the alarm clock on our dresser started ringing. “… C-err… Okay, look at the time… we need to get ready for church. Go and get ready, guys.”

We broke apart, and the jawas made their way out of the room as Molly and I went into our closet to get out some church clothing, along with some clothes to wear for the day. Given that the day was still a January day, we each selected a nice warm dress to wear for Church, along with our underwear, and we made our way toward the bathroom.

After showering, changing my bandages and getting dressed, Molly and I made sure to stuff both our crucifixes and pentacles down underneath our clothing. The last time we’d gone to church with the pentacles exposed, we’d gotten some dirty looks from some of the other parishioners, likely because they thought we were Satanists or something. Not that we really cared what people thought about us in particular, we did care what they thought of our family. Just because the two of us were practitioners didn’t mean it needed to reflect poorly on the rest. I kept my gloves in my purse for that very reason. Sure, Father Forthill knew the truth, but the rest of the Parish might have thought differently.

Molly and I made our way downstairs to find Mom at the counter working to get ready.

“Here Mom, let us get that,” I said, moving to take over dish duty while Molly grabbed the towel to dry. “We’ll handle this.”

“Thank you, girls,” Mom said, smiling. “So, what had the two of you occupied all yesterday?”

Molly shrugged. “We spent most of the day with Drew doing some research. We’ve actually got some more to do today too.”

I passed Molly a dish and nodded. “Trying to track down a couple books, actually. I _think_ it might be at a specialized book store, but I’m not sure. We’ll have to check it after church today.”

“I see,” Mom said, looking at me. We weren’t exactly lying, but it still felt a bit like we were. Omitting the necromancer’s existence felt wrong, but… we needed Mom to not worry. There didn’t seem to be any reason she or the jawas would be in danger. Mom’s emotions seemed to be a little concern mixed with mirth. “And research is all you were doing with Andrew?”

“Uh…” I started diligently scrubbing a plate. I could feel Mom’s mirth growing as she watched. Molly bumped my hip with her own. I definitely did not blush. “Yes. Research.”

Mom shook her head with a laugh. At least she liked Drew. I couldn’t imagine how she’d react if she didn’t like my friend… Well, scratch that. I could imagine. I’d seen how Mom reacted to some of the guys Molly’d shown interest in. “Right. I’ll have to have a talk with his mother later. I trust the two of you though.”

“I… thanks, Mom.” I said, echoed by Molly a few seconds later.

“You two do know that if there’s something wrong, you can tell me, right?” Mom asked, and I suppressed a wince.

“Yeah, Mom,” we said. “We know.”

“Remember that,” Mom said and left the kitchen.

We finished the dishes a short time after, and I headed to Daddy’s office as Molly kept watch. I didn’t want anyone walking in and hearing this, and I needed to make sure the call went through. Daddy always kept his phone in working condition. So there was no excuse this time.

I called the number I had for the Wardens from the previous night, and shortly the phone started ringing. Maybe this time I’d be able to get out a bit more information and see if they were actually going to come. The phone kept ringing. I wondered what Wardens would show up, not that I’d ever met any in person. I hoped that the one who really hated Harry wouldn’t be the one who showed up. I doubted he’d like Molly and I much, especially if he found out we were Harry’s apprentices. The phone continued ringing. Maybe we’d get some of the newer Wardens. I remembered vaguely that some of them seemed reasonable. The phone still rang, longer than last night. They should have picked up by now.

After the tenth ring, I hung up the phone. Damn. Either the number wasn’t working, or the Wardens weren’t able to pick up. As I stepped out of the office, I shook my head.

“Time to leave, everyone!” Mom called out from the front door, and we headed there.

_No Wardens?_ Molly asked as we moved through the house.

_No answer,_ I responded. I wasn’t entirely sure why they wouldn’t be picking up, but it couldn’t be good. Maybe they were already on their way to Chicago, but I had a bad feeling about it. Actually, as we approached the door, that bad feeling grew.

But it wasn’t just about the Wardens. Just what was that necromancer up to?

  



	25. Chapter 25

I wish I could say that I always enjoyed going to Mass. You’d think that growing up in a family like mine, it’d be easy to enjoy it. Sometimes it was, honestly. The main thing I enjoyed about going to Mass was the ritual. I can walk into any church in the country, hell any church in the world for Mass and I can expect the same format, or at least I’d be able to once those prayer updates eventually come through. “And with your spirit,” versus “And also with you,” took some getting used to the first time around. Overall, however, what made a Mass good or bad wasn’t the ritual. It was the Homily. Some priests manage to make the actual sermon engaging, important, relevant. Others… Well, I’ve seen people put to sleep by them, and even Daddy has issues with some priests’ homilies.

Father Forthill’s homilies, however, not only tended to be engaging, but they also tended to contain little nuggets of wisdom that the man had managed to gain throughout his life. Sure, most of the congregation likely thought he was speaking in metaphor when he spoke about how they should stand against the forces of evil and Hell, which were not necessarily mutually inclusive, or they thought he might have been crazy when he spoke of things he’d stood with. Still, he always managed to tie things to Scripture in such a way that not only brought in his wisdom, but he just made it… I don’t know, more real.

It helped immensely that he knew Molly and I were learning magic from Harry and actually gave a sort of tacit approval. He didn’t try to get us to give up our magic, just to get us to understand the world we were stepping into as we learned more. It also helped that Father Forthill stood as one of Daddy’s contacts to the Vatican when it came to dealing with Knight matters. That, combined with some of the things clearly lurking in the priest’s past, likely gave him the insight that helped keep the faith alive in us.

After Mass finished and the final blessing was said, we walked out of St. Mary’s with our family. Molly and I weren’t exactly in a hurry to get started today, but at the same time, we also knew that we needed to. Together with our family, we made our way to the community center where the jawas would be wanting to get their doughnuts.

I gazed out over the crowd, trying to identify people. I frowned slightly. Drew hadn’t shown up to this Mass. Maybe he and his mother had been tired. Sometimes they went to the later Mass. Pity that he’d miss Father Forthill’s homily. Speaking of the priest, I turned toward my sister and nodded. _I’m going to talk with Father Forthill._

_Okay, I’ll get some caffeine._ Molly nodded to the tables in the room, and I smiled.

When Father Forthill entered the building, I made my way over to him while Molly got her caffeine fix with church coffee, blegh. I smiled at the priest as I approached, and I waited for the family before me to finish talking him first. Once they were finished, I approached.

“Good morning, Father. Excellent homily today.” I smiled at Forthill. I didn’t know how much he knew about what I was going to ask him, but it couldn’t hurt.

“Thank you, Faith. Glad to see you and your family here when Michael is…” Father Forthill must have seen Molly by the coffee. He wasn’t usually that good about identifying us on first glance.

“Off doing what Daddy needs to do? Where else would we be on a Sunday when Daddy needs our prayers most?” I asked with a smile. There was a power to prayer, to be certain, and praying for Daddy’s safe return was a big portion of where those prayers went on a day like today. “I’d like to ask you something, Father… something that’s perhaps not really something you’ll know about, but I feel like you might.”

“Oh?” Father Forthill asked, and then he lowered his voice, saying, “What do you mean?”

I responded, lowering my own voice, “Well, first I’d like you to not tell my parents I asked about this. I… really don’t want them worrying about this on top of everything else they have to worry about.”

“Faith,” Father Forthill chided me, his concern growing. “You really shouldn’t be hiding things from your parents.”

“Given what Daddy does, given what he’s _off doing_ , Mom has enough on her plate to worry about. It isn’t easy not knowing whether he’s going to come home at night.” I sighed, looking down at my feet. I knew that I should probably tell Mom about what was going on, but how could I? “I don’t want her worrying the same about me and Molly.”

Father Forthill shook his head, his concern getting worse. “I won’t tell, but you should. What is it you want to know?”

I pursed my lips. He wouldn’t tell, no. Even if he felt he should tell, he’d keep silent on this matter because I asked. I could trust him, I knew, and Father Forthill’s knowledge could have been handy. “What do you know about necromancy? About necromancers?”

“I know that it’s against the Laws of the White Council, that it is dark magic, very dark.” The priest narrowed his eyes, and I felt some suspicion. “Why do you ask?”

I shook my head. “Not me. What else do you know?”

“I know that a drummer is used to keep the beings under the necromancer’s control. This just has to be a constant percussive beat, and the creatures will follow whoever provided the power.” Forthill paused. “Necromancers are dangerous, Faith. Strong users of evil magic, and they tend to be free to use that power.”

“Like Kemmler,” I said, quietly, and then I shook my head. “Father, there’s a necromancer in town. I need to know how to stop her, if possible.”

“Oh, Faith…” Father Forthill crossed himself. “This isn’t something you should be doing. You shouldn’t be risking yourself…”

I nodded. “I know. Do you know how to stop her?”

“Other than stopping the drumming somehow, no,” Forthill said, and I felt his concern shift to worry, and I felt some of his shame. “Faith, this is something that your father should be dealing with.”

“And if he were in town, I’d be asking for his help,” I said. “He’s not. Harry’s not. The freaking Council isn’t answering their phones. There’s a necromancer in Chicago killing people, and the people who should be dealing with it _aren’t here_.”

The priest placed a hand on my shoulder, projecting comfort over his worry. “Have faith, child. I’ll… see what I can do.”

I smiled at Father Forthill. “Thank you. If nothing pans out from this, thank you anyway, Father.”

“You’re welcome, Faith.” He clapped his hand on my shoulder once, and then he walked away.

I scanned the room once more, as Molly made her way over to me. Where the heck was Drew and his mother? They must have come to either an earlier Mass or were planning on going to a later one. It was the only thing that made sense. Drew must have wanted to sleep in a bit this morning, and while I couldn’t blame him, I was a little frustrated because it meant I wasn’t seeing him until later.

“So, what was that about?” Molly asked as she handed me a Styrofoam cup. I sniffed at the cup before taking a sip, tea. They had teabags this morning.

“Thought I’d see if he knew anything. Nothing we hadn’t heard before,” I said with a shrug. I sipped my tea some more.

“So, with no Drew, how are we getting to Bock’s?”

“Sunday bus,” I said. “Would give me time to read the copy we have as we ride.”

Molly nodded. “I flipped through it yesterday myself, but I couldn’t spot what about it she’d want.”

“Yeah… It’s not like this is one of Kellogg’s cookbooks. It’s really just a collection of poems and songs that happen to make up a summoning ritual,” I said.

“How did…?” Molly frowned.

“I might have skimmed it the other night. Some of the stuff in there is pretty good, but there’s definitely a summoning ritual in there,” I said, and I smiled. “So, let’s get our bags from the car.”

Molly nodded, smiling. The two of us made our way over to our mother and our younger siblings. Mom stood there talking with another woman whom she’d spoken with before a number of times. While Mom clearly felt some worry over Daddy, talking with the woman seemed to help the both of them, even if the woman clearly annoyed Mom. The woman was probably in her mid to late sixties, and if we remembered right, she was one of the ones giving us dirty looks the one time we left our pentacles out.

“Hey Mom, can we borrow the keys real quick?” we asked, carefully alternating midway through the sentence after we greeted Mom. “We need to get some stuff out of the car so we can change before we head out.”

Mom smiled wanly at us, and we felt her annoyance at the woman growing. “Hold on a second, Ethel, I need to talk with my daughters.”

The older woman looked at us, and then as recognition crept into her eyes, she switched to glaring at the two of us, but she didn’t say anything. So we really didn’t care.

“So, can we, Mom?” we asked again.

“Fine. You’re not driving it though. Just getting your bags out.” Mom held out the keys to the minivan, and we took them in a hand. We were careful not to touch the key fob, but there was a chance that it would have stopped working on its own anyway.

“Thanks Mom,” we said and we started walking out the door.

“Servants of Satan,” the woman muttered as we walked by her, and we resisted the urge to give her the horns in response. She couldn’t have possibly expected any of us to actually hear her, so we’d have been playing into her beliefs if we’d responded.

Instead, we made our way out to the parking lot, and we unlocked the van’s trunk using the key. After lifting the hatch, we pulled our bags out and shut it. We made our way back into the community center and then we headed toward the bathroom. Climbing into a stall, we changed out of our Sunday’s best and into something a little more practical. We still didn’t pull our implements out of our purses, but when we made our way off the church’s grounds, we’d put the gloves on at least. Instead we wore jeans, a sports bra, a sweatshirt over a long-sleeved blouse that was darker in color. We didn’t put on more make-up, but we made sure our hair was nicely touched up and back. Ideally, today we’d just figure out a way to not have to deal with the necromancer and get her out of town.

We returned the keys, as Mom still talked with Ethel Johansen, and she sneered at us when she thought Mom wasn’t looking. We doubted it was anything serious, but the woman definitely had an issue with us. We didn’t think it was entirely the pentacle incident. Maybe she knew about Becca somehow, but we didn’t know how she’d know, and that was deemed the most unlikely scenario. Most likely seemed to be the fact that she was just old. Maybe she was old and bitter due to it. We didn’t know, nor did we care.

“Mom, here’s the keys back,” we said, handing the keys back to her. “Thanks for letting us have them.”

“Do the two of you need any money for the bus?” Mom asked.

“You’re letting them take the bus, Charity?” Ethel cut in. “The bus is full of…”

“We’ve taken the bus before,” we just said that to interrupt her. “We’ll be fine.”

She looked at us and shook her head. Bitter old woman, possibly bigoted. Mom would pick up on it too, so we didn’t need to warn her. We had better places to be anyway. Like Bock Ordered Books, and then we could call Drew and kiss him good morning like we’d intended on doing when we saw him after Mass. It was only a pity that he and his mother hadn’t shown up. Would have been very nice if they had, but c’est lavie. The phone call would be nice.

We made it to the bus stop and, after brushing snow off the seat, we sat down on the bench to wait for the bus. I pulled out the book to look through it some more. If we were going to figure out how to deal with the necromancer, it would be a better idea to figure out just what it is she wanted about this book. I started flipping through the pages, reading song after song, poem after poem, and I couldn’t help but be both impressed and disgusted by the version I read. _Die Lied der Erlking_ was very technically well-written, but it had no soul to it. Peabody was a competent writer and collector, but he didn’t really seem to be trying here. It read like a history textbook rather than a collection of music and arts and poetry.

The bus pulled up, and I found myself lamenting the fact that I didn’t have a working cell phone. I wanted to call Drew, but I figured that could wait until after I’d checked out Bock’s with my sister. Besides, who knew what else Bock had in his store that could be interesting? Maybe we’d come across something new that Harry hadn’t taught us yet, and that’d be great. Of course, our main goal was to compare the two copies of the Erlking book.

I just wished I could remember exactly why Bock’s made me nervous. I wished more that the bad feeling in my gut would go away. Or at least I wished I knew why I felt it.

God, I hoped things went smoothly. Surely the necromancer wouldn’t outright attack during the daytime, right? I mean, the ghoul zombies were technically a night attack. What supernatural being liked to attack in sunlight?

  



	26. Chapter Twenty-Five

Bock Ordered Books was located on the north side of the city, near Lincoln Park. The neighborhood it sat in straddled the line between the worst a large city had to offer and the academia of the University of Chicago. We’d actually driven by this area the night before, on the way to Billy and Georgia’s apartment, though we’d kept to the nicer areas. I had no doubt that someone likely would have tried to steal Drew’s car if given the chance, but something about a magical confrontation tended to push the dangerous types away. Molly and I felt pretty safe traveling through it in the daytime, especially since the bus stop was closer to the academia side than the apartments that blatantly displayed gang colors in their windows nearest their doors. Mom might not have liked us going to this neighborhood, but she didn’t really need to know.

We exited the bus about a quarter-block away from the store, eyes drifting about for any threats, not that we expected any. The two drunks stumbling along the sidewalk down the street wouldn’t do anything, and while the group of kids dressed in thug-like clothing could have been worrisome, Molly and I had the magic to try and scare them off if necessary. The only thing I worried about there was the durability of our shields if they’d had guns, but we’d be in Bock’s shop before they did anything. Plus, we were closer to the University campus, where the cops would actually respond in a reasonable amount of time, and the Alphas would respond faster.

The door chimes jingled as we entered the shop, echoed by a deeper chime somewhere behind the counter. The man sitting behind the counter had one arm on it and one underneath it, at least until he peered up over his reading glasses at us. I think Molly and I had been in this shop maybe once before, escorted by Harry, so it surprised me when the bear of a man smiled and nodded to us. “Miss Carpenter and Miss Carpenter.”

“Mister Bock,” Molly and I chorused at the man. Artemis Bock was the proprietor of this, the oldest occult shop in Chicago and sat behind the counter, facing the door. He was a broad-shouldered, unshaven man, and he was heavyset with a good amount of muscle lying under a layer of light fat. His knuckles clearly had seen some sort of action before, likely from whatever he’d done before he became a storekeeper. He was nowhere near as strong as a wizard, but Harry’d told us he knew enough basic magical theory to get his shop protected. We’d actually felt the wards as we entered, and we knew if we caused trouble in the shop, there’d be some severe issues.

“How can I help you two?” His eyes flicked to the book under my arms. “I don’t have anything on order for Mister Dresden.”

I shook my head. “We’re not here for Harry.”

“We’re here for help, if we can get it,” Molly said.

Bock frowned, folding up his magazine, something related to gardening, and he placed it on the counter. “What do you need help with?”

“What can you tell us about this book?” I asked, placing _Die Lied der Erlking_ on the counter.

Bock picked up the book, examining it. Flipping through the book, he frowned. “This… appears to be a copy of a book compiled by Samuel Peabody, around the turn of last century. The contents are mostly from notes of dead wizards.”

“The poems and essays,” I said.

Bock nodded. “Exactly. Mostly speculation, of course. There’s no way of actually verifying any of the information in there. From what I know, only one thousand copies were ever actually printed.”

Bock’s confusion permeated the room, combined with a little bit of annoyance. I frowned. “So this is one of the thousand copies?”

“Maybe. I’d heard that all but two copies had been destroyed, lost to the years.” Bock frowned, his bushy brows furrowed in thought.

“And you just happen to have them both in the shop,” Molly guessed.

“Exactly, Miss Carpenter. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad thing to find another.”

“But,” I said. “We should verify its authenticity. Are your copies in the cage?”

Bock nodded. “I’ll walk you back.”

The larger man rustled up the keys and moved from behind the counter. The chimes would alert us to anyone coming in, and Bock would be able to deal with any customers. The shop was bigger than you’d expect when looking at it from outside. During Prohibition it had been a speakeasy, fronting as a neighborhood grocery store. The front of the store offered a good-sized browsing area for customers that were interested in purchasing most of the mainstream New Age faux-magic stuff that often could also be used for real ritual magic. Anything from crystals, to incense, to candles to oils, wands and other symbols could be found up front. There were statues and idols for personal shrines, meditation mats, and many decorations for any of the non-mainstream religions that could be named, and there were even some Buddhist and Hindu items.

Back behind the occult area stood several rows of bookshelves, holding a hell of a lot of selection of books on the occult, paranormal, and the mystical. Judging from the titles, a good portion of the books were full of philosophy better suited for Wiccans of whatever flavor, but there were clearly some books slanted for other religions, like Hinduism, voodoo, hoodoo, and even some historically pagan gods like the Norse or Greek pantheon. Molly and I, coming from a staunchly Catholic family, didn’t really like to tie our religion to our magic. Yes, our gifts came from God, but we don’t need to ask Him for favors every time we use them. Of course, that didn’t mean that other practitioners wouldn’t find it useful.

Bock led us through the bookshelves to a door in the back wall. It wasn’t really actually hidden, but the door had no frame and was set flush with the wall around it, and it was covered in the same paneling as the wall. At one time, the door had opened to allow customers to slip away to a private area and drink illegal booze, now Bock kept the door locked most of the time. He unlocked it himself, and gestured for us to go inside.

The rear of the shop wasn’t really all that big, a single room with an office built into one corner. Behind a heavy iron grille was a pair of long bookshelves running along the wall opposite the office. The room itself was full of boxes, shelves, and tables. This was probably where Bock kept his spare inventory and ran the mail-order business. Not everyone could just walk into the shop. Safety outlets glowed lightly on the walls, and the office’s door was shut tight, light off within.

Bock led us to the door set into the iron grille and unlocked it, then rolled open the cage door. The shelves sitting behind the grille were full of valuable texts, including a copy of what looked to be Lewis Carroll’s _Through the Looking Glass_ , sealed in plastic with an autograph on display from the author. I idly wondered what Bock would say if he knew my sister and I had fought the Bandersnatch before Harry had even started training us. Also on the top shelf were other rare books, some of them likely even more valuable than the Carroll first printing.

The other shelves were filled with a number of magical texts written by older wizards and Council members both current and former. I was sure that Harry’d have quite a bit to say about each of the names of the books and their contents, but that ultimately didn’t matter so much as whether the book we were looking for was even there.

“Let’s see here…” Bock walked along the shelves before stopping near a pair of identical book spines. Bock grunted as he pulled one off the shelf, something that could have either meant “Here it is,” or “I need to do manly things and be manly,” or something else entirely. He started flipping through the book, skimming its contents and comparing with the one he held under his right arm.

“Are there any differences between the two books?” I asked as I saw Bock frown.

“There seems to be two extra poems and one more essay in this version, the one you have,” Bock said, tapping the book under his arm. “Otherwise they’re identical.”

“Where are they?” Molly asked, holding out her hand. Bock placed the book there, and she opened it, flipping through the pages.

“Wait. There.” Bock pointed, opening to the same page on the copy he held in his hand. Sure enough, there was an additional poem that on first glance was about the Erlking. Somehow it managed to take up a space that was blank on the original text, like it had been cut out… or added in to fill a blank area.

I scanned over the poem, committing it to memory as best I could. While I didn’t have an eidetic memory, I could remember things if I focused properly. The poem was different in tone to the rest of the book, and it actually read more like instructions or navigational directions. _Next, please._

“The other poem and essay?” Molly asked as she started flipping through, and Bock stopped her two more times. We each scanned over the pages, verifying that they weren’t exactly the same in Bock’s copy. Something felt off about the additions. They weren’t a part of the ritual to summon the Erlking, clearly, so why did the necromancer want it? It had to be something to do with what the… the… fuck, what was it that she had to be after? I just remembered Harry on a t-rex, but I couldn’t remember _why_. Just that it was related to Kemmler’s disciples and… this book.

“Mister Bock,” I said. “I know I have no right to ask this of you, but I suggest getting rid of your copies of these books if you can. By which I mean chucking them into the fire.”

“I can’t do that,” Bock said. “I can’t let the last copies of a book be destroyed.”

I nodded. I completely understood, and these weren’t covered under Venatori actions either. It’s not like they were writings about the…. Damnit. This wasn’t what the necromancers would fight over, at least not necessarily. That was another book entirely, one found by… Damn. Someone else Marcone had working for him. “And we can’t pay you for their loss either, at least not at the moment.”

I had some money I could get at, but it wasn’t anything I wanted to dip into for something like this. Maybe it would be best if we left the books alone here. Destroying the copies of the Erlking book would only be a delaying tactic anyway, and it’d probably skew things all sideways. Harry might not ride the t-rex, and… she’d find another way to tempt him. I looked over past Bock, staring at an empty space, imagining a young brunette woman shifting into a tall leggy blonde. Lasciel’s shadow was starting to have an effect on Harry, even if he hadn’t fully noticed yet. Soon, she’d appear before Harry if she hadn’t already, and tempt him. I hadn’t seen it, but it almost was surprising she hadn’t started acting sooner.

I shook my head. We’d been at Bock’s long enough, and I wanted to see if Drew was done with Mass yet. He’d be able to pick us up in the Ex Machina, and we’d be able to go to Harry’s place to plan out the next steps.

“Mister Bock,” I said, glancing toward the office. “Could I please use your phone?”

Bock nodded with a grunt. He seemed pleased by the politeness, even if he was upset at the suggestion he destroy two of his rare books, and he led us out of the cage, closing the grating behind us and locking it. He then led the way to the office set across the room and unlocked that door. “Phone’s in there. Come all the way out when you’re done, and I’ll lock up.”

Molly and I nodded. “Thanks, Mister Bock.”

We walked into the office which was rather simplistic. A small radio sat on a bookshelf with some books that looked well-read. A desk sat slightly off-center in the room with a swivel-chair behind it. On the desk were papers, a typewriter, and a rotary phone that had a line running to the wall. Bock clearly didn’t have an online presence, at least not without a computer in his office. Given that he was a minor practitioner, odds were he could use them, but they still acted up.

“So, who are you calling?” Molly asked.

“Well, first I’m going to try the Wardens again, but then I’ll give Drew a call and we can get to Harry’s as a group and figure out what to do next.”

Molly nodded, and I sat down at the desk to start dialing. The first number I dialed was a repeat number of that morning, and like that morning, the phone rang for a good three minutes before I decided enough was enough and hung up.

_Guess they’re not there_. Molly shrugged. _Maybe they’re on their way here._

I shrugged, and then I dialed Drew’s cell number. Normally when he wasn’t with us, he kept the phone turned on and nearby. If he was in Mass, the phone would vibrate, and he’d be available in twenty minutes to try again. What I didn’t expect was for the phone to go straight to voicemail.

“Hey, it’s me. Leave a message after the beep.” The phone beeped, and I hung up. I dialed the same number again, and again it immediately went to voicemail. I hung up again. I didn’t really like leaving voicemails.

“That’s odd,” I said. “Drew’s phone’s off.”

“You sure you didn’t accidentally fry it last night?” Molly asked. “I mean, you two were pretty hot and heavy.”

“Drew doesn’t keep the phone on around us for that very reason,” I said. “You know that.”

Molly nodded. “So call at home.”

“Right,” I said, dialing the number I knew by heart.

It rang three times before a woman answered. “Hello? May I help you?”

“Mrs. Warren,” I said, a smile creeping onto my face. “It’s Faith Carpenter. We missed you and Drew at Mass today.”

“Faith, oh, thank God…” Like I said before, empathy doesn’t work through the phone, but I didn’t need it to detect the combination of worry and relief in her voice.

“What is it, Mrs. Warren?”

“It’s Drew,” his mother said. “He never came in last night.”

... Shit.

  



	27. Chapter Twenty-Six

Drew never came in last night. What? But he’d… He’d dropped us off at our place, and then he went home, right? That made the most sense. He had to be okay. There had to be an explanation. Drew didn’t just… No, I couldn’t believe that. I needed more information. I needed to… I needed to… God, what happened? How could he have not come in last night? I didn’t even dare entertain the thought that something could have happened, but, oh God, what if something had?

“What…” I swallowed, trying to get my focus as I spoke to Drew’s mother. “What do you mean he never came in? He was headed straight home after he dropped us off, as far as I knew.”

Molly looked up at me on that, concern spiking similar to my own. _Drew didn’t get home? But he was just…_ Molly came over to me and placed her hand on my shoulder, squeezing it.

“He never came inside last night, but his car….” I heard Mrs. Warren’s breath catch in her throat. “It’s in the driveway, and there’s… It looks like it got attacked by a mountain lion.”

I winced. The damage to the car could be explained, but I didn’t want to tell Mrs. Warren how it had happened at all really. Still, it didn’t make sense that Drew managed to get home but never went inside. It had been cold last night, and he wasn’t… It wasn’t right that he couldn’t make it inside. “So his car’s in the driveway, but he didn’t come inside. Did… did you call anyone yet?”

I could feel Molly’s frown because it mirrored my own. God, I wanted Drew safe. What could have prevented him from going inside? I really didn’t want to think about it, but what if he had… No, I couldn’t let myself believe that. What did Harry say about things like this? I needed to calm myself, not worry until I could see what had happened for myself.

“I did call the police, but they said that they wouldn’t be able to send anyone over for a few hours.” I heard Mrs. Warren sob, but no further sounds came.

“That… who are they sending over? I thought there was something about a twenty-four hour wait for missing persons reports…” I frowned. Twenty-four hours was too long if what happened was at all related to the necro—no, I couldn’t let myself worry about that yet. If it was the necromancer, we needed to know. God, I needed to know if my boyfriend was… Maybe I was over thinking it. It might have been anything else.

“They didn’t tell me, just that someone was coming over, Faith. They didn’t mention anything about a wait time other than just how long it would take for the officer to show up,” Mrs. Warren said. “I tried calling him, but I just got his voice mail.”

“Me too,” I admitted. “Mrs. Warren, I know someone at the police department who might be able to come sooner and check things out unofficially. If you don’t mind, I’d like to come over with Molly and the person I know to see if there’s anything we can do to help.” God, it took most of what I had to keep my voice calm there. I didn’t want to think about what could be happening, what was going on there. Until I found out otherwise, Drew was simply missing. Maybe he got lost somehow on the way back to the door from his car. Molly and I could do a tracking spell with a bit of Drew’s hair, and we’d find him.

“Y-Yes, I think that would be fine, Faith.” Mrs. Warren’s sigh sounded like a sob had mixed itself in. “When do you think you’ll be over?”

“As soon as possible, ma’am,” I said, Molly nodding in affirmation. Not that Mrs. Warren could see it, but she had to be feeling as worried as I did, especially given the car’s status. Drew not coming home was one thing, but coming outside and seeing his car in the condition it was in after the zombie ghouls? She had to be worried sick, and she didn’t even know about the necromancer. I doubted she even believed in magic. “Mrs. Warren, it’d be really helpful if you could gather up a couple of Drew’s hairs for us before we get there. We might be able to find him if the police can’t.”

“Why would… never mind.” I could almost hear her shaking her head, feel the blood pumping through her whitened knuckles as she clutched the phone harder than she should have. “I’ll see you when you get here, Faith.”

“See you, Mrs. Warren…” I hung up the phone with a sigh. I would _not_ break down here. Drew was fine. He would be fine. He probably just got distracted and ended up going to go get some parts so he could fix the Ex Machina up. He was—

“It’s going to be alright, Fai,” Molly said, her voice clearly showing her lie. Molly was almost as worried as I was, and she knew I knew. Still, she wanted to comfort me, and I’d never blame her for that. We both knew the dangers of what we’d faced, what we’d seen. We knew what Daddy fought, and we knew what Drew had gotten himself into by throwing in with us. Drew knew. Drew was Venatori now, just as we were. I wouldn’t give up on him. “We’ll find him. It’ll be alright, you’ll see.”

I grimaced. “But what if… How? How could this have happened? He shouldn’t have been a target.”

“Maybe he isn’t. Maybe it’s something else entirely,” Molly said, not quite believing it but needing to voice the alternatives. “Drew’s alive… he’s just missing. We’ll find him, Fai.”

“Right.” I shook my head and stared at the phone. I needed to call Lieutenant Murphy. She’d probably be able to help. I’d call Thomas, but I really didn’t want to show up with a White Court vampire and have him get tempted by Mrs. Warren. I didn’t want her tempted either. God, we really needed to work on a way to do some sort of distance communication between us and him. We didn’t need something like this happening again. Sure, Harry might not have been able to make it back to Chicago within a reasonable amount of time, but he’d be able to advise on the situation. We needed to know what Harry would do, and we didn’t.

“Are you going to make the call or not?” Molly asked, anxiety creeping into her voice much like my own.

“Yeah,” I said, and I dialed the phone. I wasn’t really sure dialing was the right word for using a rotary phone the way I was, but it was close enough. When I finished inputting the number, the phone started to ring. I hoped that this one wouldn’t go straight to voice mail, as we really needed Murphy’s help on this one. Additionally, we needed to inform her about the likely killer of her murder victim.

The phone was picked up on the third ring.

“Go for Murphy,” Lieutenant Murphy said, her voice calm and professional.

“Lieutenant Murphy, this is Faith Carpenter.” I tried not to let my voice waver too much. I didn’t want to cry. It wouldn’t be conducive to getting the help we needed. “I… well, we, really… need your help.”

“I wasn’t getting anywhere with this anyway; how can I help?” God, I hoped I didn’t interrupt her doing something important.

“It’s our friend Drew,” I said. Fuck, I really needed to ask her to come pick us up. How was I supposed to do that, to get her to pick my sister and I up and take us to Drew’s house? I mean, asking was possible, I supposed, but still. “He never got inside his house last night.”

“So call Missing Persons,” Murphy said. “Unless… Faith, I told you to stay away from this case.”

“And I did,” I said defensively. “I didn’t look into the case itself. Drew’s missing, and there’s a chance it could be an SI thing rather than a job for Missing Persons. We need to make it over there as soon as possible.”

Murphy sighed on the other side. I bet that was from frustration, and I couldn’t blame her. We’d stayed away from the case directly, but we’d still gotten trouble. “Fine; what’s the address?”

“Actually, we were hoping you could pick us up first, and then we’d head over.” I said, Molly nodding in affirmation. She squeezed my shoulder, and I flashed a tentative smile to my sister. “Please, Lieutenant Murphy. We can find him with your help.”

“I suppose Harry would have trained you on tracking things,” Murphy said. “Okay… Where are you two?”

I told her Bock’s address, and Murphy said that she’d be by to pick us up within the next half hour. We said our goodbyes and I hung up the phone. My hand trembled a bit; I just couldn’t… It was too much. God, I needed to, just needed to let it out.

I wrapped my sister in a hug and buried my face in her shoulder. Almost immediately, I started to cry. I couldn’t… I couldn’t let myself cry when we were at Drew’s, and my mind kept going to the worst possible conclusion. _What if this is my fault?_

_It isn’t, Fai._ Molly wrapped her arms around my back and ran a hand along my hair, lightly touching it. She felt the same worry I did, but she didn’t feel any of the guilt. _When we get to the Ex Machina, you’ll see that. We’ll be able to guess, to tell how it happened._

_But he… he should have gone home. He should have been behind a threshold. Why didn’t we just ask him to stay the night?_ I sobbed into my sister’s shoulder, as I figured out what could have been my fault. God, this shouldn’t have happened. If he’d stayed the night, even by sleeping in the guest room or the living room, he’d have been safe. There was no way a necromancer would dare attempt to attack through the threshold, and a vampire flat-out couldn’t.

_That’s only if whatever took him was supernatural, and you know it._ Molly chided me lightly. _It could have been something else._

I pulled my head away from Molly’s shoulder and shot her a look. _Drew lives in a nice neighborhood with good neighbors. If he lived in a worse neighborhood, maybe._

Molly sighed. _Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Now scoot. I’m going to call Thomas and give him an update if the call goes through._

I nodded, my tears stemming their flow. While I wasn’t completely calm, it had helped to get it out. I released the hug, and I reached into my purse, pulled out a tissue and wiped my eyes. I looked at the tissue and frowned. Damn. I pulled out more tissues to wipe the rest of the makeup off my face. I’d have to reapply it later. “I’ll go check out some of the stuff Bock has in the front. Meet me up there?”

Molly nodded. “After Thomas, one way or the other.”

“Right,” I said, standing up. I reached into my purse again, retrieving my gloves so I could put them on. “See you up front.”

I left my sister in the office with the phone and made my way toward the front of the store. I really wasn’t figuring that I’d buy anything, but I wanted to get my mind off of what was going on. When I made it to the front, I noticed that Bock had a couple more customers milling about. One was an elderly man, perhaps in his late seventies or eighties, with clear liver spots visible on his balding head. His face was unpleasant, as if he’d just swallowed something disgusting, but he seemed harmless enough as he looked around. He was perusing the book selection as I passed him by, and I moved over to the various crystals, candles, and incense.

Something about that man made me uncomfortable, which is why I was glad the other customer in the store was… Oh. Well, this was awkward. Becca was looking around the store, looking at the candles and incense. She wore a black leather knee-length skirt and had a leather corset on over a lace blouse. She wore a black leather jacket over everything else, and her hair was dyed entirely black, but I knew those lips and I knew that face. Becca was in my path… and she noticed me, her eyes lighting up slightly at the moment she saw me. I could feel it.

God, I really didn’t need this at this moment. How could I get out of this awkward situation? I _really_ didn’t want to talk to my ex while I was worrying about Drew.

Maybe something would happen to prevent it. Maybe I’d be able to avoid it. I’d have something to let me completely avoid talking to Becca and it’d help us out with the necromancer in one fell swoop. Maybe Murphy would show up in time, and maybe a future Knight of the Cross would help.

Somehow I doubted that anything would happen. The universe isn’t that kind.

  



	28. Chapter Twenty-Seven

What was Becca doing in Bock’s in the first place? She hadn’t really been interested in this sort of thing when we were dating. While she’d always been goth, she never really expressed any inclination or belief in real magic. Maybe if she had, I could have told her about my own and not expected to be laughed at. I’d given hints, but she’d always either dismissed the possibility or just ignored them. Plus, there was the thing with Molly and I, and that really was the real reason for the break-up.

Still, I never really expected to see her in here, and she was walking toward me. She knew it was me too. She always did. She could pick Molly and I apart pretty well most days, but that probably was at least partially due to the piercings Molly had that Mom didn’t know about. If you knew where to look, you could see the hole Molly put her nose ring in, and I knew she’d eventually want to get other piercings as well. Honestly, I couldn’t see myself piercing more than my ears. Fuck. I was getting off-track, and Becca was almost to me. I could duck inside one of the shelving areas and look at candles, but I knew she’d seen me. I could ignore the fact that she was here and just push past her, but that was wrong, and impolite. I could try to figure out why that old man gave me the willies, but I needed to focus on how best to avoid the awkwardness that—God, I wished Drew were here. He’d be the best out for the awkwardness. I’d be able to focus on him, and… fuck, I needed to know where he was.

Tracking spell ingredients. That’s what I needed to get. I’d be able to avoid talking with Becca if I looked busy and I could focus on finding what I needed to bring with me to Drew’s place to find Drew. Sure, I didn’t really need the extra foci to work the spell, as Molly and I figured it was probably possible to do a few interesting things with them, but we hadn’t quite managed to pull it off. With how worried Molly and I were, foci would help. Plus, looking at the foci let me not have to talk with—

“Faith! I didn’t expect to see you here!” Becca engaged me. Damnit. Now I’d have to respond.

“Becca, what a surprise.” I smiled at my ex. God, I still had some feelings for her, but I was more worried about the person that I was just starting to explore my feelings with who was missing. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, this shop’s about a couple blocks away from my dorm, and I thought I’d check it out,” Becca said. “I like all the crystals and incense. Real nice motif. Shop owner’s not quite what I expected though.”

I shook my head. “What, exactly, were you expecting, Becks?”

“Someone a bit more New Age and shit, I guess.” Becca shrugged, and I could feel some excitement from her, along with just how awkward things were getting. “So what about you? What has you here without your other half?”

“Molly’s here,” I said, glancing down at the crystal near me. “She’s just in back, using the phone. We needed to get in touch with someone.”

“Ah. Well, that makes some sense.” Was that a flare of jealousy I sensed from her? Becca had no right to get jealous over Molly and I. Not when we were together, and certainly not when we’d already broken up. Still, I had an odd feeling.

“Becks, why are you here, really? You never seemed to want to check out this sort of thing before.”

“I know,” Becca said. “When… When we broke up, I couldn’t just leave things be at that. Some of the things you mentioned… I got curious. I started looking into them. I can’t say I believe any of this is real, but it’s interesting. Interesting to see what some people believe in.”

That… I guess, that made some sense. She didn’t feel like she was lying, but I hadn’t really gotten all that good at identifying lies yet. Becca didn’t lie much though, at least not to me. Not before anyway.

“Right. So you’re just, what, exploring?” I asked, and then I shook my head. “Be careful, Becks. You might end up biting more than you can chew if you continue down this path.”

“What do you mean?” Becca asked, and I frowned. God, I probably should have told Drew this when he decided to come along, and when he decided to stick around. Maybe he wouldn’t have been missing.

“The world’s a lot darker and a lot more dangerous than people like to think,” I said. “I’d suggest going home tonight, Becks. Stay inside and come back to campus in the morning. You’ll probably be safer.”

“Fai, what’s wrong?” Becca’s concern flared up. She knew me pretty well still, even after having been at college for a bit.

“Drew’s… Never mind.” I shook my head. “Becks, please. Just stay with your parents tonight or with a friend who has an apartment. You probably don’t have classes tomorrow that you can’t skip anyway. Just stay with them.”

“What about Drew?” Becca asked. “Did he hurt you somehow? Did he—”

“He didn’t do anything. He’s missing as of last night.” I sighed. “Molly and I are just waiting to… Oh, there she is now.”

Lieutenant Murphy stepped into the shop just as Molly stepped out from the back. Molly clearly noticed Becca talking with me, while Murphy seemed to just notice that I was standing where I was. Well, obviously she noticed I was talking to someone, but I doubted that Murphy knew much about Becca from the soulgaze we’d had.

“Who’s where?” Becca looked around, spotting Molly, clearly, as the flare of jealousy showed again. God, why was she jealous of Molly? Molly and I were close sisters, and that was it. It wasn’t like she was taking up any of the love I could give to a partner.

I glanced back toward the elderly man as the hair on my neck started to prickle. He was looking between me and my sister for a little bit, but then he went back to his perusing. Something about him seemed off, but I couldn’t tell what from where I was. I didn’t want to go over to him and try to talk. I doubted it would be appreciated and what would I say? “You’re weird and creepy” seemed like it would be the worst possible thing to say to anyone, let alone an elderly man who might have just been there for browsing.

Molly made it to us first and greeted Becca with a forced smile. “Becca. I see college is agreeing with you.”

“Molly. It is, yes. I’m a lot freer here.”

Sometimes I thought that Molly handled the break-up with Becca worse than I did, and she hadn’t even been the one to date her. Then again, after what happened with Glenn, Molly and Becca drifted apart a bit. Still, we didn’t really have time for this. Murphy was here. I nudged my sister. _Ride’s here._

“Becks, I’ve got to go. Please, just make sure you’re staying at home tonight. Promise me.” I looked at Becca, focusing intently on her lips. I didn’t want to trigger a soulgaze, but I wanted her to know I was serious.

Becca sighed as she looked at me, her emotions kind of wavering between extremes. “Okay, Faith. I promise. I’ll go home tonight and stay with Mom.”

“All I ask,” I said. “Please, stay safe, Becks. I’ll try and explain later.”

“Fine,” Becca nodded. “You too, Faithy. Give me a call when you can. My number’s the same.”

I nodded, and I gathered up the ingredients I’d spotted, taking them to Bock so I could check out. The older man eyed me as I moved, but he went back to his browsing. Molly stayed behind for a couple minutes, as Murphy approached me at the counter.

“Miss Carpenter, we should get going if you’re in a hurry,” Murphy said, and I locked eyes with her. I felt the moment she recognized which twin I was.

“Yeah, just a second,” I said, reaching into my purse so I could pay. I laid the money on the counter, and I glanced to Molly, who seemed to be finishing up her discussion. “Once Molly finishes, we can get going. I’m sorry for making you wait.”

Murphy shook her head, looking around. “It’s all right. We should get there as soon as we can. On the way over, you can tell me what’s going on.”

I nodded, and Molly came over, greeting the Lieutenant with a small smile. The three of us made our way out to Murphy’s car, and once we were inside, I gave her directions to Drew’s place.

“So,” Murphy said as she took the car out onto the streets. “I asked you to stay away from this case, and the first thing you do is step right into it.”

“Not… exactly,” I said. “We—”

“Spoke to Waldo Butters about the victim’s cause of death, I know,” Murphy said. “I should be talking with your parents about that or writing up a report on Butters’s misconduct, but I know you, Faith. Even if Butters had managed to stay silent about it, you’d probably find a way to find out.”

“And the cause of death wasn’t natural,” Molly said. “Or even a normal murder, really.”

“Yeah. It’s not possible for that sort of thing to happen without magic,” I confirmed.

Murphy nodded. She clearly had a distaste for our actions; we could feel her anger. Still, she managed to keep it under control. “And the fact that Harry’s not here means you’re what I have. So tell me, what do you have? What’s going on?”

I grimaced. Going into this wasn’t going to be fun. “Well, that’s not exactly—”

“—easy to say,” Molly finished. “I mean, we initially started off—”

“—by investigating the ghoul attack—”

“—on the police station.” Molly shrugged. “We were led by a source—”

“—into Undertown, where the ghouls that got away were.” I glanced at Murphy’s service weapon. She’d managed to kill Muttley two nights prior with it, but it had taken more than one shot.

“Hold on a second, you two,” Murphy said, as she turned onto the highway. Some annoyance shined through her cool façade that she put on. Of course, it just covered even more anger that we were involved in the first place. “One at a time, please, with complete thoughts. I don’t want to be bouncing back and forth when listening.”

I glanced to Molly, and she gestured to me, zipping her lips. I sighed. “We found out that the ghouls were working for a necromancer… and they were after this book.”

I held out the Erlking book, showing it to Murphy as we were at a stoplight.

“A book? Wait, isn’t that the book you had the other night? The one you supposedly bought off of Maroni?”

I nodded. “I think it might have been why he was killed…”

Murphy growled as she pulled onto the highway. “You weren’t there to buy that book. That book’s evidence and—”

“—would have had the rest of the station in danger if it were still there,” I said.

“That’s not your decision to make, Faith!” Murphy didn’t quite yell at me, but she did raise her voice. “You’re a minor. You both are minors. Wizard’s apprentices or not, you’re still kids! It isn’t your job to get involved in this sort of thing. Necromancers? Ghouls? I don’t care how good you are with magic, if Harry were here…”

“If Harry were here, he’d be handling it,” Molly said. “And we’d probably be tagging along asking him for direction and help.”

“But Harry’s _not_ here, and the White Council won’t pick up their damn phone,” I growled. “Like it or not, we’re the best things available. And Drew is _missing_. His car’s out front of his house, ravaged by zombie ghouls, and we can’t tell his mom that because she won’t believe it. He should have made it home last night. Hell, he _did_ make it home last night, but he never made it inside.”

I felt my hands quivering, and Molly touched my shoulder, draining some energy off of me. God, why had I been gathering my will? I wasn’t trying to cast anything. I wasn’t…

“Faith, you can’t just take evidence without telling anyone,” Murphy said, her voice softening. “If you could have explained it to me the other night, I might have agreed with you. You didn’t give me that choice.”

“I didn’t feel like I had one of my own,” I said.

“Going to yell at Dresden about passing on his secretive ways,” Murphy said quietly. “Wait, you said the Council wasn’t picking up. You tried to call in the White Council?”

“Well, of course,” I said. “Necromancy is against the Laws of Magic, and in no way are we in the league of a necromancer. Let alone one like this one.”

“The Wardens should be handling this,” Molly confirmed. “But in lieu of them and Harry…”

“What about your father?” Murphy asked. “I thought fighting monsters was a thing he did.”

“Doing,” I said. “It’s what he’s doing. He went off somewhere, fulfilling his duty. Daddy goes where he’s called to.”

Murphy cursed under her breath. I didn’t quite make out the specific one, but the sentiment was clear as we pulled into Drew’s neighborhood.

Given Drew’s father’s job, his family was able to afford a good house in a neighborhood not far from our own. The streets were all freshly plowed, walks were shoveled and salted, and… there was the Ex Machina in the driveway, along with Mrs. Warren’s car, a Volvo of some model or another. Drew’s father’s car was away, like the man himself, likely at whatever training session the Cubs had him at now. Maybe this year would be the year that they took the pennant. Yeah, probably not.

No patrol car was there when we pulled up, and as soon as Murphy put the car in park, I immediately got out to go to the door. I needed to see for myself, to let Mrs. Warren know that we were here to help in whatever way we could. I knocked on the front door, and waited, even as Murphy and Molly made their way after me. The door opened after a few seconds, revealing Mrs. Warren.

Ellis Warren was a lovely dark-skinned woman with hair tied up into braided rows down to her back. Her face was normally warm, inviting, with smile lines creasing at the corners of her eyes. Unfortunately, those smile lines currently reflected the worry that overwhelmingly wafted off her in waves. She wore a dark sweatshirt and a pair of jeans currently, and when she saw me, despite the worry, a bit of joy came through. “Faith... I’m glad you’re here.”

“The officer isn’t here yet?” I asked.

“No, they’re… They’re saying that the person they’re sending over will be here soon.”

“Well, maybe I can help,” Murphy said as she made it up. “Lieutenant Karrin Murphy, Special Investigations.

“Ellis Warren… Lieutenant Murphy, can you find my son?” Mrs. Warren asked.

“I can try,” Murphy said. “Let’s get inside and I’ll make a call before getting your statement. Girls, until I finish up with Mrs. Warren here, I don’t want you going near the car.”

“But…” I protested, only to be cut off with a glare.

“Nowhere near the car, Faith. I know you want to find out what happened and where your friend is,” Murphy said, glancing over at the damage to the Ex Machina. “But I need to look it over with you to make sure you don’t contaminate the scene.”

“It’s been sitting out here all night and he never made it home. Isn’t it already contaminated?” I asked.

Murphy shook her head.

“There wasn’t any blood,” Mrs. Warren said. “My baby is just missing.”

“Let’s get inside. All of us, if that’s alright, Mrs. Warren,” Murphy said.

“Yes, that’s fine.” Mrs. Warren led the way inside, and the three of us followed. Once inside, however, Molly and I split off from Murphy and Drew’s mother. We’d been invited in before, so the threshold wasn’t keeping our power out, and we had something very different in mind. While we might not have been able to place what had happened to prevent him from going inside without looking at the car, we could prepare to find out where he actually was at the moment.

We made our way into the bathroom, and we started to go through Drew’s things. Pay dirt. Drew’s razor still had hair on it, and that could be used in the tracking spell to find him. Molly pulled a small zipper bag from her purse and placed the hairs inside. We were going to find my boyfriend. With or without police help.

We made our way back to the living room, where Murphy was talking on the phone. She glanced at us, and Molly flashed the baggie. Murphy had worked with Harry long enough that she must have known what we could use it for, so it really wasn’t any surprise when she nodded.

God, though. Mrs. Warren’s worry mirrored my own, and I couldn’t even tell her what I suspected. I didn’t think it was a good idea to say that her son was probably in danger, but what I did instead was sit down near her on the couch and wrap an arm around the slightly smaller woman.

“Faith, sweetie… My boy’s going to be alright, right?” Mrs. Warren asked. “You’ll make sure to take care of him, right?”

“I…. I hope so,” I said, a chill going down my spine. “We’ll make sure he’s found… and that he’s taken care of.”

God. Why did I feel like I was lying?

  



	29. Chapter Twenty-Eight

I fidgeted on the couch as Murphy took Mrs. Warren’s statement on how she found the car and when the last time she saw Drew. Clearly she was saving time for whatever officer was on his way here, but I felt like we were wasting valuable time. I wanted to go out to the Ex Machina and get a good look over it, to see if there was anything I could sense that hadn’t been erased by the sunrise. Murphy’s look promised that she’d be taking my own statement next, but there really wasn’t anything I could actually say in front of Mrs. Warren. “I think your son either was taken by a necromancer or Red Court vampires” isn’t something that would really fly when talking with her. She tended more toward the down-to-earth views outside her religion. Maybe if her husband were here… Actually, no, that’d probably be a bad thing. Mr. Warren would have been a little more hostile in this situation, and while he liked Molly and I, Drew possibly being in danger would probably have him on edge, much the same as me.

A knock came on the front door shortly, and I stood. “I’ll get it,” I said as I left the living room. Yes, this wasn’t my house, but I’d been over often enough that Mrs. Warren trusted me to get the door for her. I’d been over even more so since Jason and Cecelia…. Never mind. Once I reached the door, I looked through the peephole, getting a measure on the person on the other side.

A uniformed officer stood on the other side of the door. The man was comfortably overweight, clearly somewhere in his mid-fifties with a frosted grey beard that contrasted sharply with his dark roast-colored skin. His muscles were thick cords under that weight, clearly weathered and ready for whatever might be able to come. His badge shined reflected light back at me, and I opened the door.

“Huh. You don’t look like an Ellis Warren,” he said upon the door opening.

“I’m the… I’m a friend,” I said, stepping aside. “Faith Carpenter.”

“Henry Rawlins,” the man offered a comforting smile as he radiated a bit of peace.

I recognized that name, but I couldn’t place it. Memories were funny like that. I bowed my head slightly, avoiding his eyes when he looked over my face. “I’ll go get Mrs. Warren. She’s talking with Lieutenant Murphy.”

“Murphy’s here?” Rawlins drawled. “Why’d they still send me then?”

I shrugged. “She’s not here officially, but she’s gotten started for you. Be right back.”

_Moll, the uniformed officer’s here,_ I sent to my sister as I walked back toward the living room. Once in there, she had already started to stand. I looked to Murphy and Mrs. Warren, giving a small smile. “It was the guy you were waiting for, Mrs. Warren. Officer Rawlins is at the door, and he’s probably the one the department actually sent over.”

Murphy nodded. “Rawlins is a good man. I’ll pass him this and he can finish taking your statement, ma’am. I’d like to get a good look at your son’s car, if that’s okay.’

“Yes… yes, that’s fine, Lieutenant.” Mrs. Warren stood, and I walked over, giving her a quick hug. It wasn’t really enough to alleviate the worries I knew she felt, but every little bit helped. Heck, it was more for my own benefit than hers. “Drew is lucky to have such devoted friends.”

I blushed slightly, but I didn’t correct her. Without Drew here, I didn’t want to tell his mother about what we’d… Well, where we were. We would get him back. We’d find him.

We left the living room as a group, heading for the front door, which remained open with Rawlins practically guarding the door. The man had missed his calling as a bouncer. When we made it within view, he did a double-take of Molly and I before locking onto Murphy.

“Karrie, I thought that SI didn’t handle missing people,” Rawlins said. “It’s good to see you, though.”

“Rawlins.” Murphy smiled sweetly at the man, exuding a strange mix of exasperation and loving adoration. “Don’t you normally work homicide?”

“Slow work day,” Rawlins drawled. “I got shuffled around for this one.” He turned toward Mrs. Warren. “Sorry to hear about your son. We’ll do what we can to find him.”

Mrs. Warren nodded, and Murphy passed Rawlins her notebook. “I’m going to take a look at the vehicle. Faith and Molly, come on.”

I grimaced, a facial expression my sister shared, and we followed Murphy outside. Once we were away from the house a bit, I turned to Murphy and asked, “Isn’t he going to wonder why you brought us to look at the car?”

“It’s not officially a crime scene, not yet, and you two are witnesses. We’re not going to disturb the scene in case it _is_ a crime scene, but as much as I hate that you’re involved in this, I’d like some of your insight.” Murphy looked at me. This had to have something to do with the soulgaze we’d shared. There was just no way that Murphy would let two minors investigate this with her otherwise.

“Right, won’t question it, will we, Fai?” Molly held up a hand, and I shook my head to agree with her. I just wanted to find out what had happened to Drew. Finding him at this point shouldn’t be too difficult, but finding what happened first might have been.

We approached the blue Mustang convertible that sat in the driveway, and, without getting too close, we surveyed the damage. Geeze, the ghouls had done a number on the car, so much so that I hadn’t really been able to see it last night. The fenders were severely dented in some areas, and the clawed-out holes in the parts stripped down and through the base metal. If I hadn’t known better, I could have made the same assessment that Drew’s mother had made, but I knew what had caused the damage.

“They were zombie ghouls,” I said, after a few seconds, indicating the damage. “They kept up with the car when it was moving, and they tore into it.” Their living friends tore into me earlier than that, but I wasn’t going to tell Murphy. My injury wasn’t really hurting all that much at the moment anyway.

“Zombies. Zombie ghouls? You can turn ghouls into zombies?” Murphy asked as she slipped on a pair of gloves then offered Molly and I a pair. I wiggled my hands, revealing the pristine gloves I already wore, and she nodded.

“You can turn a lot of things into zombies. They just need to be dead and have left a body of some sort,” I said. “Of course, I don’t really know anything about the specifics on how, just that it’s possible.”

“Yeah, Fai used to talk about a zombie t-rex coming at some point, but it never happened,” Molly said as she slipped on a pair of the gloves, and the three of us moved closer to the car.

“Yet,” I said, looking into the car. “It hasn’t happened y—oh, hello.” There was a sort of energy flowing around the car, within the car. It wasn’t really doing much, as whatever it had been doing, the enchantment had lifted due to the sun’s rising. It felt reminiscent of the compulsion that was used on the police station the other night, at least similar in energy.

“Found something?” Murphy asked, looking at my sister and then me.

“Yes,” Molly said, as she held out her left hand, splaying out her fingers. The gloves she wore couldn’t have been helping with what she was able to feel from within the car. God, I felt it too. The compulsion’s energy hadn’t fully dissipated, but it wasn’t active. “Not sure yet exactly what, but there’s something.”

“Like the station the other night,” I said. “It’s meant to induce something… like sleep.” That sounded right. Forcing someone to sleep would make it easier to either kill them off if they slept at the wrong time or take if they needed the victim unconscious. This wasn’t enough. Finding this wasn’t enough. I needed to… we needed to.

“Fai, what are you doing?” I ignored my sister as I lowered the roof on the car so we could easily access the inside. Where was it coming from? Where was the best way to figure out what had happened? “Fai, listen to me.” Molly grabbed my hand with her own, and we closed our eyes.

We opened them again, looking through the car. We idly noted Murphy doing something similar, putting things back after moving them, but we didn’t pay her any mind as we focused on this. Drew wouldn’t just leave his car if he were given a choice. Combine with the sleeping compulsion, somehow the necromancer managed to get him right as he got home. It had to be the necromancer. The compulsion definitely indicated that. Same magic.

We glanced to the front of the car; the keys to the Ex Machina still sat in the ignition though the car was off. We reached to get them, and we cupped our hands around them, closing our eyes. A lesser known fact about empathy is that sometimes objects can absorb emotional energy from their owners. The more loved or held an object, the more emotions it experienced. The Ex Machina definitely held a good amount of emotional energy, as we found out the night previous, but if an empath specifically opens up to an object, they can focus and sometimes get a sense of what the owners have seen and experienced.

This is what we were going to try to do to figure out what happened with Drew. We saw last night, a kiss, a hug, a veiled threat of talking, and then a drive home, giddy. He pulled up into the driveway, made sure the roof was raised, and then he felt a strong desire to go to sleep. It had been subtly building up earlier, slowly coming, but right as he was getting ready to get out of the car, it came on strong. He opened the door, getting ready to pull the keys from the ignition, when his eyes started to shut as a feminine hand reached over his body, patting him down.

“ _Damnation, he doesn’t have the book.”_ The necromancer glared at Drew, but then she looked back over her shoulders. _“Start your beat. I have an idea._ ”

The sound of drums echoed through the car’s doors, but somehow they weren’t quite loud enough to wake any of the neighbors, not that they’d admit to being woken by the supernatural anyway. _“Take him. Intact. Wouldn’t do to give up our leverage.”_

“ _Corpsetaker…”_ Drew managed to get out through the fugue. He couldn’t reach his shotgun, but he knew he needed it as decaying arms reached into the car, grabbing onto him.

“ _Not quite,”_ the necromancer said. _“I’m almost offended. I wouldn’t serve that body-jumping whore if my life depended on it. Which it luckily does not.”_

“Who?” our voice echoed Drew’s, as we continued.

“ _If you must call me something, Guase works.”_ The necromancer’s pert lips were visible through the hood as she placed a kiss on Drew’s forehead, and he blanked out.

I separated from Molly, stepping back a few steps. “Fuck! Mother fucking fuck shit. Hell’s fucking bells, I knew it. I fucking knew it.” I growled as the keys to the Ex Machina fell to the ground.

Molly paused, glancing at the keys. God, Drew was in the hands of the necromancer. I really fucking knew it. I didn’t know what to do… where to go. The necromancer had Drew. She _had_ Drew, and she was going to do God knows what to him. Fuck.

“What did you know, Faith?” Murphy asked. “What did you two see?”

“The necromancer. She took Drew,” Molly said. “And we don’t know… where…” Molly frowned, and she held out her left hand. I probably should have felt it too, but the necromancer fucking had my boyfriend. How the fuck was I supposed to focus on trying to find anything in this car? She had him. Drew was going to end up just like Cecelia had, and the necromancer was going to force him. Molly’s hand went for the glove compartment. “Hold on… there’s something… here…”

Murphy walked around the car to meet Molly at the glove compartment. “I’ll open it. Stay back.”

I started to protest, simultaneous with Molly. “You don’t have ma—”

“I said, _stay back_.” Murphy popped open the glove compartment, and I moved so that I could see into it better. Within the compartment was a box of shotgun shells, Drew’s registration and insurance information, a small jewelry box, sized for a necklace, and a folded piece of paper lying atop it. Murphy removed the sheet of notebook from the glove compartment and unfolded it, a small obsidian bead falling from the unfolded note. She scanned over it quickly, indicating there was writing. “Oh, that’s… unpleasant.”

“What is?” I asked, nervously looking at the detective. Even in my unfocused state, I’d felt the energy from that bead. It had a different sort of compulsion trigger placed upon it than whatever had triggered Drew’s fugue the night before. Something of an overlook-me compulsion, one that could only be powered through by someone who was trying specifically to it. Why would anyone place that in there? Why would the necromancer, Guase?

“It’s a ransom note,” Murphy said. “The book for Andrew Warren’s life. Signed by a person calling themselves ‘Guase.’”

Ransom. Fuck. “Does it say where to bring the book?”

“And what time to bring it by. The kidnapper wants it tonight, a little after sundown.” Murphy shook her head, and my hands trembled some more.

“We’re going to have to do it. We don’t have a choice. She’ll kill him if we don’t.” I wanted Drew safe. I made a promise, and I intended to keep it. For Mrs. Warren’s sake, and for my own. “This necromancer will flat-out murder him, or worse.”

“Or we could try another option,” Molly said.

“What other option?” Murphy asked. “From what you said, she’s pretty bad news.”

“Moll, I hope this other option of yours is good…”

“We find Drew before the deadline,” Molly said, holding up the baggie of hair we’d gathered from Drew’s bathroom and wiggling it. “Let’s go steal your boyfriend.”

  



	30. Chapter Twenty-Nine

I wasn’t in any shape to be casting a tracking spell. With Drew missing, no, with Drew in the hands of a necromancer, I just couldn’t focus my will enough. Drew was captured because I had taken a book from a vault, and if I’d left it well enough alone, he’d probably be okay. Just like Cecelia’d be fine if I’d left the book in the library, and… fucking hell. I couldn’t dwell on the books and what they represented. Cecelia was dead, and there was nothing I could do about it. Drew wasn’t. Not yet. If we could get to him in time, he wouldn’t be. God, I wanted him back with me, but when I thought about what had happened, what might have been happening… I couldn’t focus.

“Fai, we’ll find him.” Molly placed a hand on my back, and I felt the comfort she attempted to push my way. I stepped away, shrugging it off. I didn’t want to be comforted. Drew was in the hands of a necromancer, and even if she wasn’t the necromancer I thought she was, she still was deadly, dangerous. God, I didn’t even know how we were going to pull this off. I couldn’t get the focus necessary to do a single fucking tracking spell, and I thought that I could handle going into a necromancer’s den?

“Fai…” Molly stared at me, and I brushed her aside, stepping away from the Ex Machina.

“Faith, Molly, why haven’t you started casting yet?” Murphy asked. “This sort of thing doesn’t take Harry all that long, and I don’t know how much longer it’ll be before Rawlins comes out.”

“I can’t,” I said, turning toward the trunk, slamming a fist against it. “I can’t focus enough… I can’t cast the spell right now. Funny. I really want to find him, and I fucking can’t. “

“Fai…”

“Don’t ‘Fai’ me! Drew’s missing! Drew’s taken! Stolen! Kidnapped! We need to find him, yes, but I can’t fucking help because I can’t fucking focus and it’s—” I choked out a sob, cutting myself off. I couldn’t.

“Faith Jessica Samantha Carpenter,” Molly said, stressing each syllable in turn in my Name, drawing my attention completely onto her, and snapping me out of the impending pity party. I wrinkled my nose at the use of my Name, but I’d listen to her. “Calm down. I’ll cast the spell, but I need you to do the math. Can you focus enough to do that?”

“For the triangulation?” I wasn’t completely calm, but my breathing was beginning to steady. Math. I could do math. God, what was that smell?

Molly nodded and pulled some chalk from her purse.

“Triangulation?” Murphy asked. “I haven’t seen Dresden do that.”

“Well, you’ve seen how he does tracking spells right?” I asked as my sister drew a circle around her on the driveway. Seriously, that smell was pretty strong.

“Yes, he casts and uses something as his guide,” Murphy said, frowning.

“And it points straight at whatever the thing he’s tracking is,” I said, as Molly grabbed a few of Drew’s hairs from within the baggie and she pulled out a pinkish crystal tied to a throng of leather. The smell had to be coming from somewhere. “Harry tends to have to recast the spell a few times to narrow down where the thing is.”

Murphy nodded, and I felt it when my sister started casting the spell. The crystal took on a darker pink hue as magic channeled through it, and it started tugging in a direction. “Yeah, I remember that. So, you’re saying that you can somehow triangulate using the spell?”

I nodded. “It’s not exact, but it should give us an idea of how far away Drew is… and which direction we need to go. We’re measuring this in Molly-steps, converted to actual feet and miles.”

Murphy nodded, and I took note of where the crystal pointed. Molly took sixty steps further down the driveway, in a straight line, while still holding the crystal. I noted where the crystal pointed now and the angle at which it did so, focusing on this and not on the smell. Mentally, I placed the two positions of where Molly stopped a distance apart from each other, equal to sixty Molly-steps. Mentally, I traced lines out following where the crystals pointed until the lines met, some distance away, and I calculated out the angle between those two lines. Then, using the sine rule, I managed to calculate the approximate distance for each side of the triangle in Molly-steps.

I frowned. “Looks like he’s in the city proper, maybe about six miles away.”

“Thought so,” Molly said, nodding. “Let’s get him.”

“Hold on a second,” Murphy said, wrinkling her nose. “What is that smell?”

I walked over to the Ex Machina, and gah. The smell practically burned my nose, but it seemed like it came from the trunk, coming out the holes that the zombie ghoul had gouged into it. I picked up the Ex Machina’s car keys from where Molly and I’d dropped them on the ground, and I moved to open the trunk.

“God, it smells like somebody died in there, Fai,” Molly said, turning a little green as the trunk opened. Inside the trunk, Drew had a few binders of what looked to be Magic cards, a machete in its sheathe, a blanket, a snow scraper, and sitting on top of one of the binders was what appeared to be a flesh-coated claw, from a ghoul.

“… I think I figured out how Guase found him,” I said, reaching in and picking up the claw gingerly, refusing to shudder in revulsion. “I was so afraid that she had my blood, I didn’t even think that this could have happened.”

Murphy frowned. “Well, as much as I’d like to say that’s evidence, I don’t think it’s necessarily a good idea.”

I nodded and placed it flat on the palm of my right hand. God, I was going to need to wash these gloves well tonight. “I’ll get rid of it then. _Ignicus_.”

Funny. I was nowhere near focused enough to cast a tracking spell, but I found calling upon fire for this burning spell _easy_. I fed my fear and anger into it, and with a mental push, I shoved the flames onto the claw, and I let them drop to the ground onto a patch of ice.

“Can we go now?” I asked, glancing in the direction of where Drew had to be, and Murphy nodded.

“Get to the car. I’m going to need you two to direct,” Murphy said.

“I might need to cast again a couple times.” Molly grabbed onto my arm and she walked me over to the passenger-side front door. She opened the door, and I climbed in. Molly followed into the back as Murphy got in and started the car. We each buckled up and Murphy got going.

“So, what sort of opposition are we expecting?” Murphy asked. “There’s no way that it’ll be a simple way of just getting in and out.”

“I don’t know,” I said, double-checking my purse. The book was securely inside, as was my wand, within reach. I had the entirety of this car ride to get my focus in shape for whatever combat was approaching. “Possibly more zombie ghouls… maybe one or two actual ghouls. I don’t know if they survived the fight we had yesterday or how many she has left as allies.”

“I don’t really want to fight ghouls if we can avoid it, Fai.” Molly said. “You’re not up for it either.”

I winced, placing a hand over my stomach. Yeah. If we could avoid a fight, it’d be better. Best thing to do would just be get in, get Drew, get out. “So, we go in quiet. We’re not Harry, and we shouldn’t do this the way he would.”

Murphy nodded. “I can do quiet. We’ll have to scope out the place first, to see what she has as far as defenses.” We pulled around a corner, and I continued along my mental map of the triangulation. We were still a little away.

“Harry can do quiet…” Molly defended our mentor, and I turned to just look at her. Wizards might normally be subtle and quick to anger, but Harry was known more for the latter than the former. “Well, he can.”

“But he doesn’t normally,” I said. “But he can back that up, and that’s normally a good thing. Right up here, Lieutenant.”

“Molly?” Murphy looked at my sister through the mirror, and she raised the crystal again, casting a quicker version of the tracking spell. The crystal swung hard in the direction of, surprise, surprise, what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. What was it with evil things and warehouses? Did it have something to do with the lack of security or oversight? I followed the crystal’s pointing with my gaze as we made our way down the street.

“Something’s odd there,” I said. Where were the zombies? Where were the ghouls patrolling? Why did the abandoned warehouse that Drew was supposed to be in, per the spell, look, well, abandoned? I supposed that whatever was looking out on the warehouse could have been waiting inside, especially given that the sun was out, but even the windows just seemed darkened. I didn’t think that anyone had actually been there for years, but somehow the spell, per Molly’s casting, said Drew was inside.

“Yeah, I see it, Fai.” Molly shook her head.

“Hmm…” Murphy grunted in a manner that either meant she saw it too or was questioning someone’s sexuality. The actual fuck? Maybe Harry or Drew would have understood that, but I definitely didn’t. “Something’s off, definitely. Do either of you feel anything?”

“We wouldn’t be able to from this distance,” Molly said. “We’d need to be close, and if we got that close, whatever’s inside would already be able to sense us.”

“I was hoping for some sort of indication as to what she had,” I said. “But this is like the one we were… oh.” Fuck. It just hit me. The warehouse, the distance. Yeah, it had taken us a bit to get here due to traffic, and from this end, the warehouse looked like it hadn’t been used in years, with its Chicago Entrance just barely above street level. “We were here yesterday.”

“There’s an entrance to Undertown in the basement,” Molly added. “But the crystal is pointing right at the warehouse.”

“Which implies Drew’s just inside,” Murphy said. “Okay.” She parked the car across the street from the warehouse. Now that we were at this angle, it was easier to identify the warehouse. Once we parked, I opened the door, and I had to mentally restrain myself from bounding across the street and into the warehouse.

Instead, the three of us made our way across together, carefully as a single unit. While we could have gone into the basement and looked in there for a way in, instead, we made our way around the warehouse, peeking in windows for any signs of whatever the necromancer might have in the way. There weren’t any drums going that we could hear, but that didn’t mean that the necromancer didn’t have some way of raising and using zombies against whoever might attack. Most of the windows we peeked through were frosted out, and as we peered through them, we could barely make out the machinery and other items that were left in the warehouse for one reason or another.

Then, as we approached what was probably the rear door, I peeked in a window that wasn’t frosted. Drew! He was right there, sitting in a chair with his hands chained above his head. Oh God, Drew… It was dark in the warehouse, and I could barely make out how he looked, but he hung in those chains, body slick with something. Fuck. I ran to the rear door. I needed to get Drew out of there, now. Trying the door, I grew frustrated as it was locked. Drew was on the other side of this door and I needed to get through.

“Fai, hold on,” Molly said as she walked over, pulling two thin needles out of her purse. She fiddled with the lock a little, and with a click, the tumblers rolled over.

“Do I want to know how you learned to pick locks?” Murphy asked.

“Probably not,” Molly answered. “Fai, go ahead.”

I nodded to my sister and opened the door. God, I knew Drew wasn’t far, I could feel him. The pain came from him in waves, and I practically staggered when I entered the warehouse. It wasn’t right. Drew… I needed to help him. I needed him safe. The pain was so fresh, so… permeating… and in the pit of my stomach, I felt a hard knot of fear. Molly didn’t react much better when stepping inside… God, we just… fuck.

“Molly, Faith, what’s wrong?” Murphy asked, looking at us, probably at our grimaces. She felt a sense of worry, but it was more about us and probably Drew than herself.

Molly’s hand found my own, and she grasped it, squeezing tightly. I shook my head, as we couldn’t even… We couldn’t even… God, I felt like throwing up.

“Let’s… just…” I tried to force it down. Drew needed our help. It wasn’t easy at all. “Let’s… just get to Drew… I saw him through the window…”

Molly nodded. “Y-Yeah…”

Murphy frowned, her eyes scanning the room. “Fine.”

I pushed forward, toward where I saw Drew, toward the source of the feelings, the pain. God. What had the necromancer been doing to him? It took longer than I wanted, but not really long at all, to get to the room we saw in the window. Drew hung above a chair, chains wrapped around his arms, digging into his wrists as he held them above his head. The coppery smell of blood hit my nose, but I was too focused on him.

“Drew!” I hissed out, trying not to raise my voice too much so anyone watching wouldn’t notice, but it hurt seeing him like that… feeling him like that. Fuck… That was blood on his face, wasn’t it? Blood dripping down his face, soaking his shirt, dripping down onto the ground where a bigger puddle of blood was. Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop. No wonder he was in such pain. God.

“Fai,” Drew’s head lolled up to face me, and there was more than pain… recognition… caring… and something else. God, what was that something else? “You shouldn’t have come, Fai…”

Molly and Murphy made it to the room, and I felt their disgust at the sight, and their worry for Drew. Murphy gestured toward the chain, but I was too focused on my boyfriend.

“I had to, Drew…” I rushed over to him, and I reached up to tug at his chains. Those weren’t going to be pulled off, not from there. God, I needed… Why was this happening to him? I reached into my purse, pulling out a tissue, and I started wiping blood off Drew’s face. “I couldn’t leave you in the hands of someone who did this…”

Murphy and Molly found the end of the chain, but Murphy was still scanning the room, even as Molly started picking the locks that held the chain to the wall. Thank God for small favors.

“You should have, Fai… You should have left me. She’s a necromancer… she can’t have you,” Drew said, and he shouldn’t have said that. I kissed his forehead, then kissed him on the lips, a gesture that was returned not that long. With a click, the chains loosened, and Drew pulled his arms loose to wrap them around me. God, I could taste his caring, his… God, what was that? Why was I still uneasy? I pulled away from the kiss, and Drew smiled at me. “Fai, that was… wonderful.”

He ran a hand through my hair, and my gaze shifted down. I whispered, “What did she do to you?”

“You don’t want to know,” Drew said, and I looked past him to the floor. “I nearly lost an arm with what she was doing.” My eyes went to the blood puddle on the ground and the trail coming off from it. I followed the trail… Drew… such pain, such loss… Wait… was that…? No…

I shifted my eyes from the floor to Drew’s face, locking my gaze on his. “You… nearly lost an arm, Drew? God, how could she have done that to you?” I needed to know. God, please let me be wrong. Please, let this… Please…. He’d nearly lost an arm… he’d lost one… dark-skinned, severed at the shoulder… But here he was holding me…

“Yes, I didn’t… I couldn’t…” Drew still held my gaze, and God, this was long enough for a soulgaze to start. Why hadn’t it? Why… why was… No. No… “I couldn’t stop her. I tried… God, Fai, I tried….”

This feeling from Drew… this loss… this sorrow… He still felt. But why was… why couldn’t I… Why wasn’t I soulgazing him? He couldn’t be… He couldn’t… What was that other feeling? That chaotic, violent turbulence beneath the surface?

I swallowed. “Drew… I’m sorry. God, I’m sorry… I didn’t… I didn’t want this to happen… Not to you. Never to you…”

“I’m sorry too, Fai… I couldn’t stop her… I can’t…. I can’t stop her…” Drew shoved me away, pulling his hand out from within my purse in the process. He clutched the book to his… body. God, the soulgaze… the… no. No. She couldn’t have… Drew’s body flickered, blinking in and out like a bad signal on a TV Set or the framerate dropping in a video game. It lost… fidelity, for lack of a better word, and my tissue… it felt more like it was covered in a clear slime than blood. No. “Nobody can stop her, Fai… Run, leave this place…. RUN!”

Drew blinked backward, practically teleporting, and I rolled to my feet. Fuck. No. That… It couldn’t have been… There was no way… Murphy had pulled out her gun and fired two shots at the thing that wasn’t Drew, but they passed through his body harmlessly, and Molly had launched the chains, which he blinked out of the way of. God… that was… We had until tonight… why didn’t she wait? Why did she…

As Drew’s _ghost_ blinked and flickered further into the warehouse, my raging grief bubbled up within me. I unleashed it all into a scream… My boyfriend… the day after we officially started dating… Why?

  



	31. Interlude: Karrin Murphy

This wasn’t exactly how I’d pictured my day going. Sunday’s normally supposed to be my day off. Privileges of being the head of the department. Of course, even when I’m off, I’m not really off, especially when we have a case assigned to SI.

I certainly didn’t expect to be called in by a pair of teenagers who didn’t know how to leave things well enough alone, but perhaps I should have. They’re learning under Dresden, after all. Faith and Molly Carpenter were the twin daughters of a genuine Holy Knight; they were learning magic from Chicago’s only Professional Wizard, and they were growing into a pair of tall beautiful women. It was almost as if they were from a fairy tale, one of the Disney ones, not something like the Brothers Grimm. The pair were tall, leggy blondes who happened to be smart, inquisitive, observant, empathetic, and all the lovely things that a Disney Princess was made of. Oh, and just to emphasize again, they had magic.

Real magic, not the kind you see done on stage shows. They bent the forces of the universe to their will, and were training under a professional wizard on how to make reality their bitch. Yeah, it sounds like something to scoff at, something to hear about that they’d lock me up in the loony bin just for saying, but I knew. It’s all real. I’d learned that lesson long and hard over the years.

Life isn’t a fairy tale, even when fairies are involved.

I’d known something was off the moment we entered the warehouse. Things had been too easy. If the necromancer had wanted to keep the Warren boy from the twins, she’d have set up some sort of defenses, some sort of perimeter. We hadn’t seen any of that: no ghouls, no zombies, not even any sort of wards that triggered upon our entry. If she’d been there, why had it been so easy to get in, and why wasn’t it guarded?

While I didn’t have any sense for magic, I knew that something had to be up as we walked the halls. My teeth felt on edge, and a feeling of tension had settled down into my stomach. Like I said, it had been too easy.

When we made it to the room that Andrew Warren was chained in and I saw the blood, I could tell why. Molly had moved to deal with the chain, while I just moved to get a better look around the room. The blood on the floor indicated that something horrible had happened here. There was just too much for whoever the blood came from to be… Well, anything close to actually alive. The blood had to have been recent, as it was still pooling, though there was a trail leading from the chair that Faith was occupied with to…

God. That was an arm. That looked to be an arm from a young black man. I had pulled out my flashlight, attempting to click it on, but the bulb wouldn’t light. Magic. I hated that effect sometimes. So I had to make out what I could with the ambient light. The arm looked like it had been severed cleanly, just above the elbow, and too much blood surrounded it for it to be only from the arm itself. Whoever’s arm this was, he had likely bled out here, yet there was no corpse, just a severed arm.

A thud drew my attention toward the chair where Faith had been fussing over her boyfriend, who now was standing with Faith on her back. The boy had somehow managed to pull the book from within Faith’s purse. Then there was this look, this crazed sneer that shifted to one of concern. His body flickered in place, and my hand immediately went for my service weapon. This wasn’t the boy we were here to find, here to save. It might have been, once, but not now. He clutched the book to his body, and his form lost quite a bit of definition. I could nearly see through it.

“Nobody can stop her, Fai… Run, leave this place…” The thing that wasn’t the Warren boy paused, and its body shifted position in an instant, as if missing a few frames of animation. “RUN!”

It flickered backward, teleporting short distances down the hall. I couldn’t let it leave with that book, so I fired my weapon. I’m not really one to brag, but I’m one of the best shots that the Department has. I’ve won the past three shooting competitions, and when I fire my gun in the service of doing my duty, I tend to hit what I’m aiming at. I fired two shots, one at each of the boy’s shoulders. Try as I might, I couldn’t bring myself to do much more than try to stop him from leaving, and both shots struck true. They struck true, but they did nothing, passing harmlessly through the thing’s form. Two chains went by either side of me, encased in a green glowing energy, rushing at the being holding the book, but it flickered again, moving out of the way. With a final flicker it was gone.

“Damn,” I said. I started to say more, but I was drowned out by the scream of inarticulate rage that came from Faith. I couldn’t blame her. What we saw…. It was horrifying.

Harry had told me something once about tracking spells and how they worked. When it came to inanimate objects, he usually used something that was a part of the original, which let him create some sort of sympathetic link between the two and let him find the item eventually, but living, animate things were different. Yes, the basic principles were the same, but items didn’t have as long a link with animate things because they changed, and if the living being were to die… Then the link would be lost, unless you were specifically looking for a corpse. So, if Drew had been dead when Molly did the spell to find him, it shouldn’t have worked in the first place.

Which called into question what we just saw. Whatever took the book from Faith had the Warren boy’s face, voice. If it had been a ghost… If that had been a ghost, how had a _recently dead_ ghost managed to interact with us? From everything I knew, only the long dead ones even had a chance. Well, okay, there was Leonid Kravos and the Nightmare, but Harry had said the only reason that Kravos had managed to be so strong was that someone was messing with the barrier between the living and the dea—oh. Right. Necromancer. So either that had been an extremely powerful young ghost of Andrew Warren, or it was the ghost of someone else _wearing the face_ of the boy on the necromancer’s orders. Given the arm and the blood, it seemed all too likely to be the former, but I wouldn’t count the latter out until I saw a body.

“God,” Molly said, shortly before evacuating the contents of her stomach, but my attention was focused on her sister instead as I put my gun in its holster. The raw pain in her scream… I’d heard it before, from families of victims, from people who never got to see justice done for their loved ones.

“Faith,” I said, approaching the girl who had nearly a foot in height over me already. “Look at me, Faith. I need you to keep it together.”

“Together?” Faith let a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a sob. “He’s… He’s… Fuck, Murphy, he’s gone... Why did he… This isn’t right…”

I grimaced. This was why cops stayed out of cases that hit too close to home, and most don’t have half the sensitivities that the twins had.

“He’s dead, Lieutenant,” Molly said softly, wiping her mouth. “God, I wish it weren’t true… But… that… no…”

“We can feel it,” Faith whispered. “Why couldn’t I feel it when he was…. Why did it come now? So much...” The blonde let out a painful cry that bled out anger and grief.

They could feel it? Harry had mentioned in the past something about the feel of death, and while he wasn’t all that sensitive to such energies—according to him, anyway—that didn’t mean that his apprentices weren’t. Maybe there was more to their empathetic natures than just being able to simulate feeling the other emotions.

What was I supposed to do here, then? The necromancer clearly was our bad guy, and she’d murdered Andrew Warren, clearly. The arm on the floor probably belonged to him, but the body… There was no body. I didn’t know what we would tell the mother. I hated being too late to do anything, and there was no way to change it. Still, normal procedure would be to canvas the area, but I had two emotionally unstable teenagers with me. I needed to work with them, get them calm before continuing.

“Faith, I’m sorry…” I said, glad to be able to actually express sympathy, for once. If this had been in the department, or if Faith had been a man, I’d probably have given her an insult instead, which more or less was the Martian equivalent.

“Not as sorry as she’s going to be…” Faith growled out as she started for the hallway the ghost had flickered down. With every step Faith took, however, I could see her body tremble. That wasn’t anger. Well, it wasn’t completely anger. She’d just lost her boyfriend, and she and Molly could apparently _feel_ his death.

“Faith, what are you doing?” I asked, torn between helping her sister and going after her, but luckily Molly seemed to be collecting herself somewhat.

“Finding the bitch that killed Drew…” Faith made a noise that was half-snarl, half sob. “I need to find her and make her… Make her…”

Faith trailed off as she continued down the hall, but I followed, dragging Molly behind me.

“Fai…” Molly rubbed one of her temples. “We need to stop her….”

I nodded and moved after the girl. She never liked seeing anyone get hurt because of her, and now someone had been, at least in her mind. Faith held a lot of misplaced guilt. I know because I’ve seen it. Apparently wizards, and wizard apprentices, have this ability that lets them look into your soul, but you get to see theirs in return. After doing that with Faith, I now had new insight as to why Dresden never locked eyes with me, but I was curious as to what I’d see behind his eyes.

I increased my speed to try and overtake the girl whose larger stride was judiciously being used, but I didn’t have to go all the way to top speed to catch up. Faith had slowed down, and she even stopped, staring at something ahead. She rose her hands, fingers splayed out, and the circle on her right glove started glowing blue.

“ _You_!” Faith yelled, venom tainting her voice as I caught up. Up ahead in the hallway, looking down it toward us, was a figure in a black cloak, hood drawn to hide whatever face was under there in shadow. “ _Fulmina!_ ”

Lightning arced from Faith’s gloved hand across the air toward the cloaked figure. The figure simply raised an arm and the lightning diverted into the ground three feet from it, driving sparks upon impact. I smelled ozone on the air from the lightning, and a dull roar of thunder shook the hall. I pulled my gun, aiming at the figure, expecting retaliation, but it simply lowered its hand.

“Faith!” I yelled. She was about to do something that Harry wouldn’t want her to do. Hell, she’d already done something that Harry wouldn’t want. I’d seen that face too many times. If Faith was wrong, the figure wasn’t our bad guy. “Don’t! And you,” I addressed the figure. “Freeze!”

“She killed Drew!” Faith shouted, her face pulled into a snarl. “That bitch murdered him! I just need to hit her with something stronger!”

“Faith, stop!” I ordered, and then I pulled out a low blow. “Drew wouldn’t want you to be a killer, not with your magic.”

Faith paused for a second, long enough for Molly to get closer to her.

“Why hasn’t she attacked yet, Fai?” Molly asked. “If that’s her, why hasn’t she done something? You attacked her, and all she did was divert it.”

“Because I am not Guase,” a feminine voice came from under that hood, echoing down the hallway. It sounded off though, not quite human. It had a sort of buzz to it that made it warble, making the words slither like snakes through the air. The words were slowly pronounced and enunciated clearly. I suppose they had to be, in order to be understood. “It is too dangerous up ahead for you as you are now. Leave.”

“Who the hell are you then?” Faith demanded, her voice only quivering slightly. She was hurting, pretty badly. “Why the fuck should we listen to you?”

“Other than saving your sanity, perhaps?” she asked. “There are eight zombies patrolling the warehouse; somehow Guase has managed to automate the drum process such that the drummer needs not be here. None of them are coming into this hallway so long as I am here to stop it. They _are_ after you, however. So I suggest you leave and regroup. Guase has already left, anyway.”

“Who _are_ you?” I asked, keeping my service weapon trained on her. Guns were useless against a well-trained wizard in a close-quarters fight, but most people still had an aversion to them. If she was playing us, I wanted to get a shot off on her first. Plus, eight zombies meant eight bodies. Where had the necromancer managed to get them from? “Why are you trying to help?”

“I am called Kumori,” said the woman, and she turned her hood toward me. I felt the gaze from behind those shadowed eyes, but I didn’t flinch. “I am helping because death is a tragedy that should not be repeated. If you wish to deal with Guase, you’re going to need help.”

“From a Kemmlerite?” Faith asked, her anger and grief still cutting through. I wasn’t so sure I trusted this Kumori character, but she wasn’t the necromancer who had been here.

“I am no supporter of that madman,” Kumori said, sharpness somehow coming through even with the slithering words. I didn’t know who or what Kemmler was or why this was important. Guase was a murderer though, and murderers needed to be stopped. “You should not accuse that of anyone unless you are certain.”

“Why should we trust you?” I asked, cutting Faith’s next anger-fueled statement off.

“Because I can bring you the boy. Once this is over.” Kumori spread her hands. Bringing the… Bringing Drew? That’d mean we’d have a body to give his parents closure. To give Faith closure.

“… Drew…” Faith closed her fists, and the glow faded from the circle on her glove. Her face scrunched up some, and she let out another sob. Molly came up and embraced her sister from behind.

“That’s not a reason to trust you,” I said. It wasn’t. There was no proof that she even had access to the body to give. It did, however, imply that Guase _didn’t_ have the body. “I need a better one.”

“I’m keeping the zombies at bay so you can leave.” Kumori’s hood shifted toward me. “Your bullets have more of a likelihood of striking those children than myself. Please, leave. The zombies won’t leave the warehouse to the street during the daylight hours.”

I narrowed my eyes. I’d seen Harry’s shield deflect bullets before, and if she was anywhere as good with them as Harry, she was right. Plus, I’d seen her redirect Faith’s lightning. I didn’t know magic, but that seemed like it would take major power. Power she was using to redirect the zombies, and if the zombies wouldn’t follow us outside, that was probably the best place to bring the girls. Especially if Kumori was telling the truth about giving us Drew’s body. My instincts were telling me that she wasn’t lying, but I’d been fooled before. Still, my instincts were also screaming at me to go after the murderer, but I’d given a pledge. Protect and serve. I had two people whom I needed to protect at the moment. Leaving would do that.

“Fine,” I said, looking to the twins. “We’re leaving. Now.”

“But…” said the girls in unison.

“Be careful, Guase will send the zombies out after you when she gets the chance,” Kumori said as I turned back toward the girls.

“Now, ladies,” I said with the voice I used to get rookies acting. “Back to the Saturn.”

Molly switched from a hug to grabbing her sister’s arm and leading her past me. I pushed on the two taller girls’ backs as we kept going out, toward the entrance. We kept to the perimeter of the room Drew died in, and it seemed to help the girls to do so, but they still seemed sickened when they entered. I wasn’t sure how much to trust Kumori, but I was fairly certain she had been telling the truth. She might have attempted to help us, but she had reasons of her own for performing these actions other than being a good Samaritan. Once we made it out of the warehouse and into the sunlight, I gave a sigh of not-quite relief.

“Come on. To the car.” I gestured for the twins to follow, and with dejected faces that tore at my heart, they did. God. They didn’t deserve this. Still, if this Guase was sending things for us, there was one place I knew we’d be safe. I climbed into the driver’s seat as Molly deposited Faith in the back seat and climbed into the passenger seat herself.

Faith brought her legs up to her chest in the seat, and she hugged them. I could only imagine what she must have been going through. “Drew…” she softly whispered, tears flowing from her eyes as she looked out the window at the warehouse. “ _Guase_.” That came out more as a snarl.

“We’re not done with her yet, Fai,” Molly said, her voice already sounding somewhat less pained, but still colored by grief. “She’ll pay.”

“With interest,” I added. “When Harry gets back…”

“We don’t have time to wait on Harry!” Faith yelled. “She’s doing whatever she’s doing soon! Harry won’t be back for God knows how long... She killed Drew. She murdered Drew, and Kumori… Kumori has the gall… to tell us to leave. Why didn’t she save Drew? If she was trying to be helpful… She should have saved Drew…”

I shook my head and continued driving. Dresden would be best for this sort of thing, but with him out of the state, I needed to make sure they were safe. It also wasn’t a terrible place to do some planning.

“Where are we going, Lieutenant?” Molly asked, softly.

“The only place that makes sense,” I said. “We’re going to Harry’s.”

  



	32. Chapter Thirty

Drew was dead. My boyfriend had been murdered by a necromancer for what? For… fun? For… the book? Did the necromancer predict that we would come for him before the stated time and lie in wait with that trap for us? Fuck, I really didn’t know. A ghost. Drew had been a ghost. I’d _kissed_ a ghost that had been solid enough to matter, solid enough to take the book. If it was Drew’s ghost, if it was _truly_ Drew’s ghost, why had it taken the book? Why was it bringing it back to _her_?

I snorted out a sob from my position in Murphy’s Saturn. Necromancy: not just for raising zombies anymore. The bitch had killed Drew and then bound his ghost to her bidding. I didn’t know how, nor would I ever want to know the specifics, but she’d done _something_. Drew wouldn’t have willingly obeyed her, willingly stolen from me in life, nor would he in death. Fuck, I hated all forms of mind control. I lost two friends to that already, and now I’d lost a third to a fucking necromancer who went by Guase. And per _Kumori_ , Guase was indeed a Kemmlerite, but she wasn’t one I recalled. I recalled six. Three of whom who were Kemmler’s apprentices and their drummers or apprentices themselves. Kumori was the apprentice of a more frightening master, and if Cowl were in town, Guase was the least of our worries.

The bitch needed to pay though. She’d killed Drew, and I’d make sure that every single bit of pain she caused him would come back on her threefold. I wouldn’t use magic to do it, either. I’d willingly be Drew’s death curse since he had no magic of his own to cast one. She needed to be stopped. Whatever she was planning couldn’t be healthy for the world, but most of all, she needed to fucking pay. I couldn’t stop her from hurting Drew, but I’d stop her from hurting anyone else.

The real question was… How? Per Kumori—who God only knew whether she was trustworthy or not—Guase had left the warehouse after leaving eight zombies to hunt us down. Given the capabilities of zombies, and given the fact that Molly and I were… God, Drew’s death hit us both hard. Somehow, the ghost’s presence numbed us to the existence of the emotion that was there until it was gone, and the death hit us all at once. He’d died… painfully, bleeding out as he refused to… Fucking hell.

Drew was dead, and Kumori somehow had the body. She was going to… well, she was going to… Fuck. If we could deal with Guase successfully, we’d get the body back, and Drew would get a proper burial. I guess the small favor here was simply that I wouldn’t have to face down a zombie wearing Drew’s face, just his ghost.

“Where are we going?” I asked. Molly might have known already, and Murphy had probably answered the question before, but I couldn’t…. I had been too focused. Too focused on my grief, my anger… I needed to release it. If I got too angry, I wouldn’t be able to do what I needed to. If I lost myself to grief, I wouldn’t… God. I needed to be able to focus, but it was hard…

“Harry’s place,” Molly said softly, reaching back to place a hand on my knee that was still clutched to my chest. When had I done that? “Lieutenant Murphy thinks it’s the only place that makes sense.”

I swallowed, and then I nodded. It did make sense. If Guase were to send anything after us, Harry had a steel door and fucking strong wards. Sure, if she were being indiscriminate, she could probably overwhelm the wards with waves upon waves of zombies, but I didn’t know if she had the time to even try for that. She had the book, which meant that she might have been more focused on doing whatever she needed the book for. It was too soon for any sort of major ritual with the Erlking. The Wild Hunt didn’t tend to start up until around the time of the harvest, and it was the middle of January. Hell, the only reason we even had tomorrow off of school was because of a dead Civil Rights leader.

So, if she wasn’t going to do something with the Erlking, the only logical reason she’d want that specific book would be for the extra passages: the two poems and the essay. From what I remembered in what I saw of them, there was something there. I just… I didn’t exactly have an eidetic memory. I could remember most things I read in broad strokes, but when it came to exact specific words that were on a page, I blanked. I could tell you the themes of a story, what happened in it, and how I thought it should have ended, but I couldn’t do direct quotes from random passages on page thirty-three. However, if I was right, there was someone who we had access to that _could_.

_Fai, Drew was a good man._ Molly squeezed my knee, and I closed my eyes as they teared up. Nobody in here would judge me for crying. I knew that. It just… No. I needed it. I let it out as we continued down the Chicago streets. Once I got it all out, I’d be able to tell them what I thought. What I knew. Right now, I needed this… I needed to cry for what had happened to Drew. Molly’s sobs echoed my own a few seconds later, and through it all, Murphy kept driving, though we felt her sympathy. She hadn’t known Drew the way we did, the way I did, but she knew the reason for what we were doing.

Sometimes you just need to cry, to let it out, so that you can do what you need to do next. I didn’t quite get that in my last life, but I get it now.

We stopped crying a short while before Murphy turned onto Harry’s street, and I reached into my purse, pulling out some tissues. My makeup had run, so I wiped it completely off, and Molly did the same with her own. It didn’t matter. We had work to do.

“I think I can figure out what Guase is doing,” I said as we pulled into the spot in front of Harry’s building. The amount of rage I let go to my voice was blissfully minimal, even if I hated the bitch with the heat of a thousand suns. “And then we can stop her.”

Murphy frowned as she unbuckled her seatbelt. Concern wafted off of her, and I noted she wasn’t exactly frowning at me. “You shouldn’t be dealing with this. Neither of you should.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Molly said.

“She killed Drew.” I opened the door and started toward Harry’s place. When I got to the door, I opened the wards so that we could get in, and I unlocked it. Immediately on entering, Mister came over and demanded attention by trying to slam into my leg, but I lifted it. The cat slid by on the ground, and then after stopping, simply turned and walked away, ignoring me.

I shook my head when Mouse approached, and he turned around to walk further into the apartment. Thomas must have been out, as I couldn’t feel him anywhere inside. No matter. I made my way to the entrance to the subbasement and pulled back the carpet. Molly and Murphy entered the apartment now, and I could feel them coming up behind me.

“Why are you going down there?” Murphy asked.

“Bob. I left the book next to him Friday night when I came back out. There’s no way he didn’t read it,” I said. “Being a spirit of intellect, he can probably recall the exact contents of the pages that have differences from the regular Erlking book.”

“And if those have something to do with Guase’s plan,” Molly said, offering me a smile. “Then we can figure out a way to stop her.”

“Right,” I said. Stopping her, permanently. We were going to end this necromancer’s threat, and if the Wardens weren’t able to help, fuck them. “I’m going to head in now. Moll, could you call Billy and the others, and give them an update?”

“I can,” Murphy said. “I’ll also call Stallings at SI. If you—”

Leaving them to figure out what they were going to do between them, I opened the trapdoor and used a small application of telekinesis to pull a lit candle to me. Thomas must have lit them before he left. I stepped down the ladder to the subbasement. I grabbed my notebook from the shelf and pulled a pen from the jar that Harry kept down here.

“Bob,” I said, looking to the skull. “Wake up.”

Bob’s eyes lit up, the orange lights coming off his skull as he turned to look at me. “What is it, memsahib?”

“That book I left by you two nights ago, I need you to recall some information from it,” I said, opening the notebook.

“Why? Can’t you just read it yourself?” Bob looked down at me.

“The book’s in the hands of a warlock.” I didn’t want to mention necromancy to Bob. For some reason, I felt like that would be a bad idea, but I couldn’t place the why. “I need those passages to try and figure out what they’re up to. Did you read it or not?”

“I might have,” Bob said, and I started moving my hands. “I would need to reme—Oh, stars and stones, Faith!”

I had slipped my arms beneath my top and pulled upward, in a fluid motion, revealing my upper body to the skull. I didn’t have time to wait and negotiate with him. The longer I waited, the longer Guase went unpunished, the more people would die the way Drew did. After about fifteen seconds of holding my top up, I pulled it back down. “Talk, Bob. I need you to tell me word for word these passages from the book, _Die Lied der Erlking_.”

“Well… Okay. Other than the book’s terrible German title, what do you need to know?” Bob asked, his orange eyes burning with a form of concern and what I’d call piqued interest. Bob’s feelings were odder than most things.

I gave him the pages that the poems and essay were on, asking specifically for these. Bob didn’t let me down, and while it took a bit, I managed to get the poems and essay written out in their entirety.

“Can I help you further, memsahib?” Bob asked. “Maybe if you tell me what you’re looking for in those passages?”

“Can’t, Bob,” I said as I looked the passages over. “Thank you, though. This is a real help.”

I pored over the pages, trying to make some sense of it. I was pretty sure that one of the poems had to do with a location, the second poem had to do with timing, and the essay… was prescriptive on how to do _something_. The three passages were written in such a way that they’d fit within the book about the Erlking, but on closer examination, none of them were even about the Fae. No, while the rest of the Erlking book had been certainly prescriptive on how to summon the being, these passages had nothing to do with him. _Got the pages, Moll. Need you and Murphy down here._

_Why don’t you come up? It’s cold down there, and you should be by the fire._ Molly pulled her older sister act again, and I had to agree with her, though I hadn’t really noticed much about the cold tonight. Holding the notebook, I climbed out of the lab to join the other women in the living room.

Thomas was sitting there, and when he saw me, he sighed, concern tinging his voice. “Faith, I’m sorry about Andrew. I might not have liked him, but he seemed like a good kid.”

I grit my teeth, but I nodded, accepting Thomas’s sympathy. “I take it you’re caught up to speed?”

“Yeah, I know the gist. Lara can’t spare anyone to help at the moment, but she’ll see what she can do,” Thomas said. Pity. The White Court would have been useful against the necromancer, but there were other things we could do, maybe.

“Right,” I sighed. God, I wished that this whole shitty situation was done already, that Drew was here, arms wrapped around me. He’d always been there, a rock to lean on when times got tough. I put the notebook on the coffee table. “I managed to get Bob to give me the passages that were unique to the copy of the Erlking book that _she_ now has.”

Molly came over and wrapped an arm around me, and I debated shrugging it off for a second. I didn’t… She was just reminding me that I wasn’t alone, something for which I was grateful. “Okay, so the passages have something to do with her plan, right?”

“Yeah. I think the poems have to do with a time and location while the essay... it outlines the ritual, but I’m having trouble figuring out how.”

Murphy read over it. “Lining things up, it looks like there’s a mention of the ‘Month after Solstice when the moon is round,’ in the one poem.”

“Tonight’s a full moon,” Thomas said.

Murphy nodded. “I’ve kept track of them since the Loup-Garou attack a few years ago.”

“So… whatever she’s planning, she either needs to do it tonight or wait a year?” I mused. “Now when is moonrise?”

“About three hours after sunset,” Molly said. “But where is she going to do this thing?”

I looked over the second poem. Something bugged me about its organization. The wordcount and syllable count were inconsistent for each line, but it also spoke of an area of high density. I looked to the essay, reading through. As I read over them both, together, and separate, I started deconstructing them both in my mind. If it were absolute latitude and longitude, the ritual would have to be done in a specific place, but if somehow it was relative… Hmm… The essay seemed to define the ritual, somewhat, and there were references to “bringing back” something. Bring back what? What would have Guase so eager? What did she mean by gifts? Of course, there was what Kumori said when I called her a Kemmlerite, and what I felt from her. She had been angry but also worried. Oh. Oh fuck. It clicked. That was where she was going to do it, and that was what was going to happen. Her end goal.

This hadn’t happened in what I remembered from the past life.

“I think I know what she’s trying to do and where,” I said. “I need to make a phone call. I’ll explain after.”

“What?” Murphy asked, but when I stood and headed toward the phone, she didn’t stop me.

Guase was attempting to bring back Heinrich Kemmler somehow, using the results of this ritual. Somehow this ritual would get her the pieces she needed to bring him back, and the Wardens had been incommunicado since my failed attempt the previous night to impress upon them the danger. My heart was beating hard, but I tried to keep a clamp down on the fear, anger and grief I felt going through me as I made it to the phone. I paused at the phone, checking it for a dial tone but not dialing once I heard it. Was this something that Harry would want to do? That Harry would do?

I shook my head. The bitch needed to be stopped. Screw what Harry would do or approve of. I did something he never would.

I called Johnny Marcone.

  



	33. Chapter Thirty-One

When Marcone gave my sister and I that phone number the previous day, I doubted highly that he ever expected either of us to call. Hell, I really didn’t expect either of us to either. Marcone was what was colloquially known as a bad guy, a mobster, a criminal, but he was hardly the worst of the worst. No, calling Marcone only made sense when faced with someone like Guase. Hell, calling in every single potential ally made sense, but I didn’t have the connections to reach around and out to every group. Plus, Guase had killed one of Marcone’s men, just as she’d killed Drew. He’d make sure she was punished for it.

The phone rang for a few seconds, and I considered how I would approach Marcone. We needed the man and the forces he could command in order to succeed, and even then, I wasn’t entirely sure it was possible. Gard would be helpful, as would the security company she worked for, but I doubted that we had the time to get them completely deployed. Still, getting Gard to warn her boss would be helpful, even if the man or woman in charge couldn’t send help right away. If we failed, there were a number of consequences that I didn’t want to think about. Plus, the bitch wouldn’t get punished.

A woman with a neutral sounding voice answered the phone. “Executive Priority Health, direct line. How did you get this number, and why should I not hang up on you?”

“This is Faith Carpenter,” I said. “I need to talk with Mister Marcone about the case he asked my sister and I to look into. It seems we’ve found results.”

“Ah, Miss Carpenter,” Marcone said, his deep voice resonating with certainty. “Your call is not unwelcome, but from the impression you left yesterday, I must admit your call is unexpected.”

There hadn’t been a click indicating that the call had changed lines, which meant that Marcone had been in the room with the woman answering the phone. It didn’t matter though. The bitch needed to pay. “Well, times change, Mister Marcone. I don’t like this, but we need your help.”

“Go on, Miss Carpenter.”

I explained to Marcone who Guase was, what I thought she was trying to accomplish, and what she’d managed to do. When I got to explaining about Drew’s death, my voice had gone cold, flat, and nearly monosyllabic. Marcone, for his part, managed to let me go through the explanation without much interruption, and whoever had answered the phone for him hadn’t said anything further in the conversation.

“This Guase woman, you’re confident that she’s the one who killed my man?” Marcone asked, his voice mostly unreadable.

“Positive,” I said. While I hadn’t really had any evidence beyond the way the man died, it had been pretty obvious that necromancy was involved. Looking back at how the energies were in that apartment, something had been off. Magic had been used to kill, and it was for the book that Guase now had. Of course, with what the bitch did, I was nearly ready to use magic to tear her head off myself, if I got the chance, but calling Marcone in would be almost as satisfying. “And she’ll kill even more if she succeeds at her goals. The Wardens can’t or won’t help in this situation. That’s why we need yours.”

“My men are not magical, Miss Carpenter. They have not yet been tested fully against a supernatural threat. However, I believe I can spare some Troubleshooters to aid you. Of course, I will accompany them along with Miss Gard and Mister Hendricks,” Marcone said.

“Speaking of Miss Gard,” I said. “Can I talk with her for a moment, please?”

“Of course, Miss Carpenter. Please give her the location information as well as the time so she can make the arrangements,” Marcone said smoothly. The man was unflappable. I told him that his man had been killed by a necromancer so she could acquire the damn book, and his response was like I had been telling him the weather.

“Yes, sir.” Once Miss Gard was on the phone, I explained to the taller blonde woman what was going on, and what I thought I needed from her. She clearly recognized the name of Kemmler, but I doubted most supernatural beings old enough to live through the time he was around failed to remember him. Such a person tended to leave long memories. Hell, I asked for her to do her best to get through to the Wardens as well. If we could get some Council-related help here, things would ease up, but I doubted that we’d be that lucky. Besides, all the Wardens would do is kill her with a sword I’m not so sure that would be a punishment to her at all. Gard did mention calling her boss, someone with the last name of Vadderung, and she’d give him the full lowdown on what was happening.

After finishing up my talk with Miss Gard, I hung up the phone, and I dialed another number, one I had memorized. The phone rang once, twice, and then a third time before being picked up.

“Hello, Carpenter residence,” Danny’s deeper tone answered, and I hung up the phone. What was I thinking? If Mom found out what we were doing, what was going on, at best she’d be worried, and at worst, Molly and I would have to directly disobey her. I didn’t want that. I didn’t want either of those extremes happening, and that meant not letting Mom know. That said, I did want to make sure they were safe. Molly sent an approving feeling to me, letting me know she trusted my judgment here. I love my sister.

I dialed another number that I’d dialed many times before, the number to the St. Mary of the Angels rectory. The phone rang twice before being picked up.

“Hello?” I recognized the voice of Father Peter Nguyen, a guest priest whom I was pretty sure was going to end up in Florida within the next few years for some reason, around the Boca Raton area.

“Ah, hello Father. This is Faith Carpenter, is Father Forthill around?”

“Miss Carpenter, yes. I’ll go get him for you,” I could hear the smile in Father Peter’s voice. The Vietnamese priest always seemed to be smiling when I saw him. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was his default mood, and most of the time you couldn’t help but smile after speaking with him. Unfortunately, right now wasn’t one of those times.

“Hello, Faith?” Father Forthill had picked up the phone about forty-five seconds after Father Peter had left.

“Father,” I said, exhaling a sigh. “Have you heard anything from my father?”

“Not yet, but given what you told me, I took the liberty of attempting to get a message to both him and Sanya regarding the situation.” I winced. I’d asked him to leave Daddy out of the loop on this, but given what I knew about what was happening now, I couldn’t say that it wouldn’t be right.

“Right,” I said, closing my eyes. “It’s worse than I thought earlier…”

“How so?”

“She took Drew. She killed him. She used his ghost to steal the book she wanted from me.” I tried to stay clinical as I said this.

“Faith, I’m so sorry…” Father Forthill trailed off. “That young Andrew was snuffed out like that for the purposes of an evil woman, I can’t imagine what you must be feeling right now.”

“Grief, partially, but a lot more anger now. The _bitch_ of a necromancer took him, tortured him. She cut his arm off! And we don’t even have a body to bury. There wasn’t a body, but anoth—but the only way we’ll get it is if we manage to stop her.”

“Faith, Andrew was a good man.” Forthill tried to reassure me, but I wasn’t having any of it. I was on a roll now.

“Oh, and all of this? It’s for a bigger game, Father. She wants to bring back Kemmler. And even worse, she wants to do it tonight.”

“Merciful Father,” Forthill said. “I didn’t think it was possible… Outside of Christ’s miracles.”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, my rant deflated somewhat by the confusion I still felt over this. “Necromancy’s weird, and… This ritual’s weirder. I’m pretty sure it can lead to bringing him back in some way… but…”

“It wouldn’t be a true resurrection. What do you mean by weirder?” Well, I could have explained to Forthill that the ritual was somehow contained and hidden within a three-thousand-word essay that I had to rewrite by hand after flashing Bob the perverted air spirit that resided in a skull. (God, please remind me to get Harry a mechanical typewriter.) I could have explained that the essay resided in a book that had nothing to do with necromancy, but it, along with two poems somehow seemed seamlessly inserted into the book alongside its normal stuff. I could have explained how it seemed to reference things that had nothing to do with the book it was in yet seemed to fit perfectly on first glance.

“It doesn’t matter. We’re going to stop it,” I said, not bothering with an explanation. Forthill didn’t need to know the minutia of magic. “I just… If you can get a message to our mother, Father. Get her to keep herself and the Jawas behind a threshold tonight, please.”

“Faith, you shouldn’t be doing this alone,” said Father Forthill.

“Please, Father, just get her to do that,” I pleaded. “We just want to make sure that they’re safe.”

“They’d want you safe as well,” Forthill said.

“We have help,” I said. “And I pray that your message will reach in time to send us more.”

“Very well. I’ll pray for your success, Faith,” Father Forthill said. “Goodbye.”

I said goodbye and hung up the phone myself. Forthill was good for his word, and Mom listened to his advice when he gave it. If he told her to keep our younger siblings inside tonight, Mom would do it, and she’d probably still worry about the fact that neither Molly nor I were there. However, she’d be safe from the knowledge of what we were really doing.

I walked back toward Harry’s living room, which, to be honest, wasn’t really all that far from the kitchen where the phone was so they could easily hear everything I just said, but I knew that Molly probably got the idea about the ritual around the same time I did. Murphy and Thomas stopped talking as I came over, and I could feel apprehension from the both of them. Both were supposed to be the adults here, but Molly and I, we were the closest thing that there were to wizards here.

“You called Marcone,” Thomas said, and I nodded. Thomas let out a sigh. “Well, I suppose that’s some sort of backup.”

When Murphy opened her mouth, I raised my hand. “I know what Johnny Marcone does, more or less, and who he is. This is a necromancer and we don’t have any of the backup from the correct channels. _And she killed Drew._ ”

“Fai,” Molly placed a hand on my shoulder. This time I let it stay. “Marcone’s a good idea. He’s got an in with some sort of supernatural backup with his contract with Monoc Securities. More supernatural fighters are a good idea.”

Murphy nodded. “Yeah. I just won’t call SI for backup if Marcone’s men are there. Honestly, with the two of you fighting this, SI would have been iffy to begin with. Without Harry present, I can’t really justify this as a thing for SI to officially be a part of.”

“Then you’ll stay safe and away, for Harry’s sake?” I asked. Murphy and Thomas needed to both be away. I knew how much Harry cared for the both of them, but I also knew that if they wanted to go, there was precious little I could do to stop them without… potentially breaking their trust.

“Like hell!” Murphy exclaimed. “The hell I’m letting the two of you face an army of darkness with only Marcone’s men as backup.”

“We were going to call the Alphas too,” Molly said. We were, too.

“Borden and his group will be helpful, sure, but I’m not going to tell Harry that you got hurt on my watch,” Murphy said. “You’re my responsibility, girls. I’m not going to stop you from doing what you think is right, but I’m not going to let you do it alone.”

Molly sighed. _Only one way to stop her from coming, sis._

_Not worth what comes after,_ I sent. Sure, Molly and I had the skill to just put both Murphy and Thomas to sleep, especially if we were working together, but doing so would be a huge violation of trust. They were in the know, and they could still be helpful, as much as it pained me to see someone who might not have the ability to stick around properly get into it. I silently vowed to not let what happened to Drew happen to Murphy and said, “Okay. You’re with us. But Thomas, I’d… like to ask you a favor instead.”

“Oh?”

“Guard our family rather than coming with,” I said. “Keep an eye on our place. If anything comes that way that isn’t supposed to, stop it, please.”

“Sure thing.” I could feel Thomas’s disappointment and understanding. Given his current state of Hunger, any serious damage could potentially make him a liability. As much as I liked looking at him, I didn’t want to be one of the people he ended up feeding upon, no matter how good it felt. A truly starving White Court vampire was easily as dangerous as the zombies we were going to face. “So, should I get a chainsaw or something? Just in case she manages to go all Army of Darkness?”

“I think your boom stick is probably enough,” Molly said. “You said that the White Court couldn’t spare anything?”

“Technically Lara shouldn’t even be talking to me,” Thomas said. “I’m persona non grata there, and she risked a lot speaking to me earlier.”

“And we’re not Harry,” I concluded. Lara probably was setting something in motion as a contingency if we failed, but she couldn’t overtly act here as it would make House Raith seem weak. White Court politics were all about catspaws, which right now I’d happily act as against the fucking bitch that killed Drew. “Right. So, Lieutenant Murphy, Marcone and his group, Billy, Georgia, Kirby and Andi, and us. Lieutenant, I don’t suppose you have the number for Jared Kincaid, do you?”

“What?” Murphy blushed a little. This early, huh? “I mean, I have _a_ number, but Jared might not answer.”

If he were with Ivy, he’d know already, but his job would be primarily protecting her. I’d written small notes in the margins of the paper that I wrote the dictated poems and essay on. Ivy needed to know what was going on, even if she couldn’t act.

“Well, if it’s just us,” Molly said. “Where are we all going to group up?”

That part had been difficult to figure out, but given the contents of that second poem and what I remembered of that time Harry taught us about Chicago’s leylines, I figured it out. It wasn’t going to be anywhere out on the lake; while there was a dark as hell leyline there, it wouldn’t be what they needed, and it didn’t fit the location in the poem, but there was a crossing in Merrionette Park, near where three cemeteries were.

I gave them the location that I did Marcone, the same one Molly would give the Alphas. Once we were all together, it’d finally be time.

I’d make sure that Guase was punished for what she did to Drew. Even if it killed me.

  



	34. Chapter Thirty-Two

An ill wind blew as we drove to the meeting point, as if the weather itself could sense Guase’s intent. A storm was coming, an Alberta clipper, pushing its way toward us, ready to strike. I wasn’t sure who the weather would benefit most, but, depending on when it hit, I could use it, but so could she. I didn’t know how many zombies she had, but it didn’t matter. We’d face them down. We’d make the zombies re-dead. It was a pity what had happened them, sure, but now they were the enemy. The best thing we could do to honor their deaths was to ensure that their corpses were no longer being desecrated by the bitch.

At least it wouldn’t be Drew’s body, at least if Kumori was telling the truth. I might have had to face down Drew’s ghost, but at least I wouldn’t have to face down his zombie as well. Who knew what Guase had done to compel the ghost, and who knew how many other ghosts she had managed to compel? Necromancy… It was dirty, tainted magic. Wrong. There was a big reason it was against the Laws of Magic to use, and any sort… I couldn’t imagine the type of person who would use such a thing, but from what I remembered, Grevane, a Kemmlerite, liked to spam zombies. Perhaps Guase would be the same with ghosts, even if she had used zombies as well.

There was a reason I’d gone back down into the lab and had to have that conversation while Molly and Murphy were making their respective phone calls: Molly to the Alphas, and Murphy to Kincaid. I’d broken away because I realized that Guase might be using more ghosts than just Drew, and we needed any advantage we could against them. Harry’d mentioned something about a powder or dust that he’d made to deal with ghosts. He’d used it when he worked with Daddy five years ago, and from what I remembered, he still had some left down there.

So I’d descended the ladder into the lab, knowing that Harry needed to install a stepladder at some point if he was going to have Mouse go down there, and I started scouring the shelves. Harry’s Ghost Dust was something that would be immensely helpful. I just couldn’t for the life of me remember where he’d put it. I started opening containers and peering inside. _Why_ had Harry chosen to store pencil shavings? Oh, right, potions. That explained the gold filings, bits of what looked like pearls, and the tiny slivers of graphite, but where was the Ghost Dust?

“What are you looking for, Faith?” Bob asked from his perch upon the nearby shelf.

“Ghost Dust. Harry said he’d made some, and he still had some left.” I shoved some containers aside. They didn’t have what I needed in them, and they smelled funny.

“Why do you need it?” Bob asked. “What sort of ghost activity is going on?”

“I just need it,” I said. This shelf was a bust, so I moved to the next. It had to be here somewhere. “And, God, I hope there’s enough…”

“Faith, I know where it is,” Bob turned his orange lights on me, piercing me with his gaze. “Tell me what’s going on, and I’ll tell you.”

I looked at the skull. On the one hand, I needed to know where it was, and I was getting nowhere on my own. On the other, something in me desperate thought that Bob learning about Guase was a bad idea. I knew it had something to do with my past life memories, but I couldn’t remember the reason at all.

“Bob,” I said, my gaze not leaving his glowing eye sockets. “What do you know about Kemmler?”

“Faith, why do you want to know about Kemmler?” Bob asked, his voice sounding nervous. “You shouldn’t want to know about a man like him. He was a terrible person, evil and sick.”

“Wait, evil?” I mean, I knew he was evil. Just like his followers. It clicked for me. “World War One…”

“His doing. And then mass graves in World War Two. It took the entire White Council to put him down in 1961.”

“Fuck,” I simply said, as I let it hit me. As much as Guase needed to be stopped, this added a whole new layer if the ritual could do what I thought it could.

“Why are you asking about Kemmler, Faith?” Bob asked.

“Because one of his fucking apprentices _killed Drew_ ,” I snarled out. “And then she used his ghost to steal the book from me, and who knows what else she has at her fingertips with ghosts. _That_ is why I need the Ghost Dust.”

“Wait, Andrew Warren’s _ghost_ stole the book from you for her?” Bob let out a whistle. Strange to see a skull doing it. “It’s the wrong time of year for the barriers to be thin enough for that quick a formation. Which means she did something to stir up the turbulence…”

“There had been eight zombies in the warehouse,” I said. “And three more ghoul zombies that chased us… that got taken down by the Alphas, Drew and I.”

“That might be enough over a localized area… I’d need to think on that. Still, that kind of control… Necromancers are bad juju, Faith. You should stay out of it.”

“She killed Drew,” I said simply. “Where’s the Ghost Dust?”

“Lead box on the third shelf to the right,” Bob said, and I went for it. Inside was a bag full of some sort of metallic dust.

“Wait, what’s in this stuff?” I asked.

“A mix of things, really, depleted uranium, iron filings, and a few other ingredients,” Bob said cheerfully. “Don’t worry too much about it. Worry more about what you’re going to be facing.”

I nodded, thanking the spirit as I started back up the ladder, and as he brushed it off, I swear I saw a glimmer of blue in the eye sockets, but they faded back to his orange soon enough. Something within me idly worried about that, but it was quashed by my desire to deal with Guase. I continued up the ladder, and by the time I made it back up into the apartment proper, it was time to go. Molly’d contacted the Alphas, and Murphy hadn’t quite managed to get into contact with Kincaid.

I stared out the window as we drove across the city. Harry lived about a twenty-minute drive away from Merrionette, and I needed to figure out just what I was going to say to the people assembled to try and get them to work together. The Alphas would follow Billy’s lead, but I wasn’t so certain that he’d follow mine. Or Molly’s, for that matter. Sure, we knew them, and sure they’d volunteered for this, but there was a level of trust that Harry brought out in people that I wasn’t sure I could. Still. Guase killed Drew, and I needed to make sure that the bitch suffered for it.

— _me out, Fai_. Molly squeezed my shoulder, and I turned toward her, looking away from the oncoming clouds and the energy that hung in the air. _You aren’t alone in this. Remember that, Fai. Don’t shut me out._

I closed my eyes and sighed before opening them again. Murphy glanced at us in the mirrors and shook her head, but she didn’t say anything, focusing on her driving.

_Guase needs to be stopped,_ Molly sent. _She needs to be stopped before she kills anyone else and before she manages to pull off whatever she’s trying to_.

I nodded, _And she killed Drew._

Molly nodded. _Don’t let her kill you too, Fai. Don’t let her pull you away from me._

_She won’t_. I grabbed my sister’s hand and squeezed it. _She needs to pay though._

_She will, but I need you to not let it drive you away._ Molly leaned her head against the seat I was in.

“Hey, you should sit back,” Murphy said. I squeezed my sister’s hand as she did so, but my gloved hand wasn’t as good as skin contact. “We’re almost there… and it looks like Borden and the others are here already… and there’s Marcone.”

The place I’d set for the meetup was a half mile from what I’d determined to be the likely location of Guase’s ritual in Merrionette Park. Molly and I had been out here before, with Drew, and I remembered there was a Dunkin’ Donuts within that area. While I’m not exactly the world’s biggest coffee fan—I actually rather hate the stuff—I am a fan of Dunkin’ Donuts. So I chose the parking lot to the restaurant as our meetup area. We could walk from there to where we’d need to be, it was a safe area to keep the cars, and afterward, if we so chose, we could get doughnuts. Assuming we all survived and assuming we managed to win, of course. I’d happily celebrate my reve—my stopping of the bitch who killed Drew over a doughnut.

I looked over the parking lot. Billy and Georgia’s SUV sat in one spot, the motor running, and I could see Andi and Kirby sitting in back. All four of them wore sweats with a form of slippers that would easily come off for when they needed to change. Unfortunately, real life wasn’t like fiction, and the Alphas couldn’t just morph skintight clothing with their transformation. Magic didn’t work that way for some reason, sadly. That was one of the reasons I was reluctant to ask Harry about shapeshifting. Another was his answer when Molly asked.

On the other side of the lot was Marcone’s vehicle… well, his vehicles. Marcone had brought a dark panel van along with two sedans. Marcone himself stood outside, leaning on the van, flanked on either side by Hendricks and Gard. All three were simultaneously dressed for the weather and, judging from the bulges I saw under their coats, wearing some sort of tactical gear. Standing not too far from the van itself was what I assumed were the rest of Marcone’s forces, or at least it could reasonably be assumed so from the bulges under their clothing. Three of the men were larger, about Thomas’s height but built more like body-builders than Thomas’s Greek god build. The remaining five men were a bit of a step up from what I’d consider a standard mob thug. They were better cut than Hendricks, and they seemed more comfortable in the situation than the redheaded man did at a glance. Still, all of them were necessary.

Murphy hissed as she slowly pulled into a parking space. “Just what did you tell Marcone, Faith?”

“That in all likelihood, we had no help coming other than what he could provide,” I said as I assessed our forces. “And I’m not sure it’s enough.”

“It’ll have to be,” Molly said and I nodded. The three larger men were from MonOc Securities, this much I knew from their obviously Norse features. Gard must have gotten through to her boss and impressed upon him the seriousness of the situation. The other five must have been people Marcone trusted in this situation. It was better than letting Murphy call in SI to deal with something that was outside their jurisdiction. “Ready, sis?”

I pulled tight on my gloves and pat my jacket, verifying my wand was still there. I checked the bag of Ghost Dust, verifying its position as well. I watched as Molly did her own check, simultaneous with my own, verifying the location of her own implements. She held both her wands up her sleeves, and unfortunately that was it for the both of us. Maybe at some point, we would carve staffs, but that was neither here nor there.

“Let’s go,” I said, and simultaneously, Molly and I opened the doors of Murphy’s Saturn. Lieutenant Murphy followed us out not long after, and I heard her muttering something about professionalism and jurisdiction before putting on a serious mask. Both Molly and I could feel the detective lieutenant’s apprehension, but she projected confidence in her seriousness. She was easily ready to take on whatever was necessary, even if we wished otherwise. The Alphas turned off their car and came out to meet us as we walked to the center. Marcone, for his part, nodded to the men I’d correctly guessed were his as he approached as well.

“Lieutenant Murphy, Miss Carpenter and Miss Carpenter, as promised, we have come to help,” Marcone said, and then he glanced to Billy. “I see you have managed to secure the help of Mr. Borden and his _pack_.”

I felt Billy tense up, but he was focusing on Molly, Murphy and I. Given what we were all here for, I doubted that he’d do anything rash against Marcone. He wasn’t Harry, after all.

Billy ended up nodding. “Yes, we’re here to help, Mr. Marcone.” Oh good, he managed to use an honorific rather than just calling the man by his last name as a moniker.

“Good. Miss Gard, please factor them into the battle plans,” Marcone nodded to his bodyguard.

Gard nodded.

“We need to stop her from completing the ritual, preferably even preventing her from starting it,” I said. “Molly and I can probably get close if the opposition is distracted.”

“As of the last scout report, she hasn’t shown up yet at the site you mentioned,” Gard said. “Still, there have been some homeless shambling around, and they’ve been starting to congregate toward Beverly Cemetery.”

“So she’s been killing homeless,” Murphy said. “I wondered where she was getting her zombies.”

Marcone nodded. “It would seem that way, Lieutenant.”

I nodded, stepping away to talk with Gard for a moment, to clarify some things while Murphy spoke with Billy, organizing some planning with him while keeping an eye on me. Molly stood by me to make sure that Gard didn’t try anything, but I doubted the Valkyrie would impugn her honor. Gard and I, with Molly’s input, managed to try and organize things the best possible way. She’d command how Marcone’s forces were deployed, but she’d make sure that they followed the ultimate objective.

Then a chill wind forced our conversation to a close. Molly and I stiffened as we felt the energy carried on the wind. Necromancy has a distinct feel, corrupt, cold, and wrong.

“Sunset was less than half an hour ago,” Molly said. “But—”

“—she’s begun the ritual,” I finished, looking to my sister. We turned to the group. “It’s time to go!”

Mobsters, wolves, a lone cop and two wizard trainees… We’d better be enough to win.

  



	35. Chapter Thirty-Three

Beverly Cemetery isn’t really all that famous; there are cemeteries with far more history, far more stories, and far more prestige than Beverly in Chicago, but the cemetery held one little secret: it was where four leylines crossed, one that ran through Mount Hope cemetery, one that ran through the Catholic cemetery nearby, and one that ran all the way through Graceland. Most of the time, the leylines didn’t do a hell of a lot other than just move energy, and given the state of Beverly, it really wasn’t what you would expect from an area that had such high magical potential. The cemetery was surrounded by a simple chain link fence, not even any barbed wire. Sure, the main gate had a stone wall near it, but the bulk of the cemetery was just that chain link fence Gravestones had been stolen from plots here before, and from what I understood, several of the grave plots had multiple people in layers. Of course, that might have just been hearsay. All in all, it really wasn’t the kind of place you’d expect a magical ritual to be performed at, even one that was as specialized in necromancy as this one. Honestly, if I hadn’t seen the leyline crossing before, I would have picked out Mt. Hope as the more likely place, or Graceland itself, but this evening… This evening, Molly and I felt it. The leylines were _charged_ tonight.

As we approached the cemetery, the wind blew strongly, as if pushing against our advance. I was thankful for my gloves and zipped jacket as my hair whipped around my face. Luckily, it hadn’t started snowing yet, but I had no doubt it would soon. The necromantic energy hung in the air like static, making the hairs on my arm stand on end. To my right stood Molly, her wands in her hands and Murphy with her pistol down toward the ground, ready to be shot. To my left, where Drew would be, stood four wolves; the Alphas kept pace with us, guarding our flank. They hadn’t scouted ahead like they’d wanted, mainly due to those Marcone had brought. Some of Marcone’s men had taken point, hands reaching into the duffel bags they carried around their necks. They must have had some sort of long-barreled guns within them, but even if I could see them, I doubt I’d be able to ID them. Marcone himself stood only slightly behind us, flanked by Miss Gard wielding a massive axe and Mister Hendricks in much the same position as Murphy.

The energy flowed down the leylines, pushing toward Beverly, and the normally peaceful, if poorly reviewed, cemetery loomed forebodingly ahead. The trees loomed menacingly, their skeletal branches curling toward us as we approached, reaching out as if to grasp us in place and drain our lives away. The clouds above swirled, lit to those who could see it with cold blue energy. The gate to the cemetery had been left wide-open, and within, we could see a group of what looked to be people dressed in ragged clothing. The wind changed directions again, and the air carried the repeated beat of a marching snare drum. It was then that the wounds on the people became obvious as they shambled seemingly aimlessly through the graveyard. The wind carried the smell of their rot, their decay, and the drums beat louder.

“Zombies,” Molly hissed out, and Murphy nodded. Marcone’s men up ahead drew their weapons as we entered the cemetery. Upon entering, they fanned out, and I kept my gaze looking, following the energy. The leylines pulsed, and I could feel them drawn down the paved line toward wherever Guase was performing her ritual. Marcone’s men used hand signals to communicate between them, ones that Murphy seemed to understand, so Molly and I followed her lead. The Alphas circled around, sticking in a loose formation nearby while the rest of us crossed the threshold of the cemetery.

Then the zombies all looked up in unison from their shambling walk, and as they turned toward us, the drumming got louder. Thump-tha-tha-thump tha-tha-thump-thump thump. It came from beyond the memorial at the end of the pavement, and it had to be what held the control over the zombies. I counted the zombies. Fourteen of them. Molly, Drew and I had had trouble with merely three, albeit three made from ghouls. Oh wait… two of the bodies I’d assumed were zombies started shifting, hooked claws growing from their hands, and… oh, fuck. Great. She’d managed to keep two ghouls on the payroll. Fucking hell, as if this fight wasn’t already going to suck.

No choice. Hard and fast.

“Now!” I crowed, magic running down my right arm and through my glove and wand, lighting them both red. What would Dresden do? Fire seemed appropriate. “ _Hinotama!_ ”

I threw the fireball at the nearest enemy, and it exploded, knocking the zombie back, and burning through some of its clothes without igniting them. At the same time, each of Marcone’s forward guard unleashed a hail of bullets from their guns, firing at a rate that shouldn’t have been possible with a legal weapon. The Alphas circled around into the park, baring their teeth, ready to pounce any zombie that dared to get close, and the three larger men that Marcone brought with him took off their jackets and pulled swords from sheathes on their backs.

The zombies charged, letting out a haunting sound that I didn’t know was possible for human vocal chords, even enhanced by magic. The howling roar echoed the howl of the wind, bearing down like a train as they moved. Bullets ripped into their flesh, tearing chunks of skin and muscle out, forcing blood down to the ground, but they still came, seemingly unhindered by the loss of body mass. The Alphas pounced as the zombies approached, using tooth and claw to hamstring them, forcing a few to the ground, but they got up again.

“Scatter!” Hendricks called, and we obeyed. Molly stuck by my side, leveling her right-hand wand at the undead.

“ _Onkyouki!_ ” A wave of directed sound pulsed out from her wand, colored in green, and it struck a group of three zombies head-on while they charged. I don’t know why, but the zombies stalled after being hit by the wave, disoriented.

Marcone’s massive swordsmen ran at the disoriented zombies, wielding some sort of giant AK-47 in their off-hand, but then they fired. The sound their guns made wasn’t the rapid fire of bullets but instead the rumbling boom of shotgun shells exiting the barrel. The swordsmen were one-handing a rapid-fire shotgun, and they unloaded a few shells into two oncoming zombies that Molly’s spell hadn’t hit; when they got close to the disoriented zombies, their blades bit into undead necks. However, even with the force behind the impacts, only one head rolled, and its body remained standing. The drums beat louder.

In the chaos, I’d lost sight of the ghouls. They had to be somewhere in this graveyard, somewhere around, but the zombies were the more pressing threat. The ones Molly’d hit started attacking Marcone’s men directly, clawing at them, punching at them, and attempting to bite, but Marcone’s men seemed to hold them off.

The zombies that Marcone’s men blasted climbed to their feet, and they charged my sister’s and my position.

_Go for it, Fai_. Molly encouraged, and I smirked.

I slammed my hands together, pulling them apart quickly as the spark of electrical magic formed between them. The spark climbed up my wand, ready for me to cast. “ _Fulminara._ ”

Electricity arced from my wand and through the two zombies, a crackling boom of thunder echoed through the graveyard, as my spell managed to slow them down further.

“ _Sfukaze!_ ” Molly scooped two gravestones off their plots and flung them at the twitching zombies, knocking them to the ground.

Pistol fire came from behind us, and I glanced back to see Murphy standing near Marcone, shooting at zombies that approached. Marcone and Hendricks stood on either side of the diminutive cop, each wielding an assault rifle of some sort, and they fired controlled bursts into the zombies.

A whoosh of wind came from my side followed by the sickening squelch of a blade meeting flesh, and Gard stood there, axe buried in a zombie that managed to sneak up. God, the emotion here was too high… too much of it muddling everything. Too much pain, too much death, too much… fuck. We needed to shut it out.

“Go, girls,” Gard ordered. “Get to her, we’ll catch up.”

Molly and I nodded, and, after slipping our wands away, we joined hands. “ _Sfumare_ …” We faded from perception as we activated our veil, and then we started moving toward the source of the necromantic energy. The zombies were just the fodder, meant to slow us down. Guase was the real target. She was the one who needed to be stopped, and it needed to happen as quickly as possible. “ _Soukotte._ ”

Combining a veil with the increased perception spell was difficult, but it wasn’t impossible, not for us. We’d be able to move with speed through the battlefield without being seen, without being heard. We might as well have been invisible with what we did. The world moved at a snail’s pace, and we could see it. Bullets hung in the air after leaving assault rifle barrels, the shotgun shells from the massive men exploded into pellets that spread into the oncoming zombies. Gard pulled up her axe from the downed zombie. Billy the wolf was post-pounce as the trail of blood through the air would hit his fur.

We _moved_. There was only one place that Guase could be. We followed the pulsing energy of the leylines toward their crossing, toward the center of the cemetery. As we moved, we paid attention, at the speeds we were likely moving at, it wouldn’t do to slip on a patch of black ice or fall out of the veil at an inopportune moment.

Guase had the book on a podium, a circle drawn in the snow around it with a five pointed star poking into the outside. All of the points of the star save one corresponded with the direction one of the leylines passed, and the fifth pointed to where Guase stood, both hands out, chanting. Unlike before, her hood was down, and snow-white hair reflected the unnaturally blue light coming from the circle. She had no age-lines on her face, and in fact, she looked to be of no specific age at all, really. Ageless, she was almost an ethereal beauty. It was almost a pity that she’d murdered the fuck out of Drew and needed to die for it.

The drummer stood nearby, his hands mid-movement, with little snowflakes caught in the air around the vibrating skin of his drum. Then the snowflakes moved again, falling down as the drummer’s rapid-fire drum beating continued. We knew that if we took down the drummer, we might have made dealing with the zombies easier. There was, however the chance that doing so would make Guase be able to leave with her prize, and that was unacceptable. Guase needed to suf—she needed to be stopped so that whatever she was planning wouldn’t work.

Decision made, we approached Guase’s circle. Our veil was perfect. There was no way we were going to fail at what we needed to do. We reached into our jacket to—

“ _Wucht._ ” Guase waved a hand at us and we flew back, our veil dropping as we slammed into the wall of a mausoleum. “Jian, Zed, deal with these pests.”

Oh. That’s where the ghouls went. They’d managed to keep themselves hidden behind some of the larger gravestones and trees. We couldn’t understand how we missed their sickening smell and hunger. Maybe the rotting flesh and emotions of the zombies drowned them out, but now that we could see them, it was all too prominent.

We rolled to our feet, and thrust out our right hands. Individually, we could move air to lift things of a decent weight, move things around in a buffet of wind, but together? Combined together, especially with the aid of an oncoming storm, we could do so much more. “ _Sfukaze_!”

Channeling our magic, we slammed the wind into the ghouls, interrupting their pounce, and we kept it going, buffeting each of them with enough to throw them back, tumbling toward the trees. Unfortunately, there were no iron spikes here to try and deposit them on, nor were there anything other than gravestones to use as battering weapons. We needed to think of a better plan and fast. We continued to pour wind at the ghouls, not letting up on the spell.

Wait. Couldn’t wind also cut? Or was that just an anime thing? Of course, given what one of our spells looked like, who were we to talk about anime things? We curled the fingers on our right hands down while still shooting the wind. We imagined it further shrinking, and words came unbidden to our lips. _“Sessakufuu._ ”

The wind pulsed out shrinking down into a scalpel-thin line. We didn’t quite hit the ghouls straight on, and instead, several branches fell off the trees as our spell cut through them. How far the spell could go, what its limits were, we didn’t know, but we did know that we missed.

“Do I have to do everything?” Guase’s voice sounded beleaguered, and a wave of cold energy came from her, shooting out across the graveyard and up into the sky. The swirling clouds and blue energy in the sky started to come down, similar to a tornado, but it wasn’t wind. No, the swirling energy… it… Those were ghosts within it. There weren’t a lot, just a few moving at a decent speed, including _Drew_.

“ _Hinotama.”_ We made four fireballs and chucked them at Guase, who simply batted them away with a wave of her hand. We needed to get her done, to stop her. She couldn’t be allowed to finish. We ran at the circle.

“Please.” Guase thrust a hand at us. “ _Wucht._ ” We slammed into a wall of force. No. We needed to beat her. “Let’s try something else. _Wucht trennen_.”

We were shoved apart, slamming us into opposite mausoleums just as the group of ghosts hit the book and spread out. No. Drew’s ghost approached me, turbulent anger bubbling right beneath his surface. God, I didn’t want to see that look on Drew’s face. Resentment. The ghost resented me, resented that I couldn’t save him. That I let him go. God, I just… I’d tried. I’d desperately tried. I didn’t know that the necromancer would be able to… I didn’t know she’d try and track him down. If I’d known… God, if I’d known… She’d batted away our best spells. She’d knocked Molly and I out of the veil. How could we beat something like that? And Kemmler was supposed to be worse?

I closed my eyes, and I could see the rest of the battleground. Molly’d been injured in that last attack from Guase. A concussion, bleeding. Murphy and Marcone were working together against stronger oncoming zombies, and they _never stopped coming_. Hendricks laid bleeding nearby while Gard stood over him with her massive axe, bleeding from her own wounds. The Alphas… God, the Alphas… Andi was dead already… Kirby with his throat sliced through by a ghoul’s claw, and Billy with his stomach torn out. Georgia stood guard over their bodies, but even she had wounds. God, what had I gotten them all into? What had I done? Marcone’s men were dead save for two… This was my fault. This was all my fault. How could I? How could I have stopped this? I opened my eyes, and all I could see was darkness, shadow growing, but I knew…. I knew…

God, I needed a miracle. Please, God, I don’t ask for much. Let this not be my fault.

“You see now, don’t you,” Guase’s voice came from within the encroaching darkness. “You never stood a chance in stopping this, little girl.”

“Please, God.” I muttered. “Please…”

“Pleas to an uncaring God just show how pathetic you are,” Guase’s voice said. “You lie there, no friends, no family, no _hope_. What did you think would happen? You never had any hope to begin with.”

A warmth came as I heard a saber drawn from its sheath. A bright light banished the darkness from my vision away, and I heard a Russian-accented voice say, “I believe that I would like to challenge that theory.”

  



	36. Chapter Thirty-Four

Oh, thank God. Sanya had appeared. Sanya, much like my father was one of the Knights of the Cross, wielding _Esperacchius_ , the Sword of Hope. The saber had one of the nails of the crucifixion within it and it was the embodiment of the virtue, wielded by someone who himself inspired Hope. Daddy wielded _Amoracchius_ , the Sword of Love, and _Fidelacchius_ , the Sword of Faith was currently without a Knight, with Shiro Yoshimo having died a couple years ago. I’d asked for a miracle. I’d prayed for help. In Sanya, perhaps I’d found both. Of course, God helps those who help themselves, and Sanya must have gotten the message from Father Forthill. Maybe it was better that it was Sanya that showed up rather than Daddy. Sanya wouldn’t try to keep us out of the fight. Daddy might, but he wasn’t here. Maybe that was why He sent Sanya here instead of Daddy.

The man stood between me and Guase, sword shining with holy light, banishing the dark visions that plagued me. The battle wasn’t quite as bad as I’d feared. At least, as far as I could tell from my position. There was no way that the Alphas would have been taken down that easily, especially if the zombies had no way of doing any sort of ranged attack. That didn’t mean that they weren’t having issues, but they had to be alive. They just had to be.

“Faith, are you well?” Sanya asked without looking away from Guase.

“Better now that you’re here,” I answered.

Guase sneered. “One more means nothing. _Sterben_!”

The necromancer raised her right hand and a wave of cold blue light shot at Sanya. I could feel the hate, the death, the chilling power that came from the spell, and I gasped. Sanya stood his ground, unflinching. He shifted his grip on _Esperacchius_ , and when the spell came close, he sliced upward, parting the spell with the magic blade. The spell split on impact, dissipating into harmless motes of light.

“Faith. You should check on your sister,” Sanya said. “I will keep her occupied.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, getting to my feet.

“Thanks for reminding me,” Guase said.

“Your fight, ved’ma, is with me.” Sanya charged Guase, forcing her to look at him. At that moment, I started toward where I could feel my sister. If Sanya could keep the bitch distracted long enough, I’d be able to make sure Molly was okay. I did not doubt in the abilities of a Knight of the Cross, and I heard his battle cries as Guase used her magic to try and hold him off.

I barely gave the drummer a second glance as I made my way across the falling snow to where Molly had landed. My sister had crashed through two trees and disappeared back that way. I’d seen it before Drew’s ghost and Guase… came after me, made me see those things. First I found one of Molly’s wands as I approached. I picked it up into my left hand, looking for where she had landed. God, I hoped she was okay. I still felt her in this direction, and I continued looking. There. An imprint into the snowbank… Please, God, I wanted my sister to be okay. That I could still feel her was a good sign.

_Molly_ , I sent, brushing her mind with my own through our link. She wasn’t… No. She needed to be conscious. I would make sure she would be. _Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter, I bid thee_ _ **awaken**_ _. Get your ass up, sis. Please._

Some stirring in the snow. It seemed to be working, and I moved closer, even as I heard four distinct howls of wolves. The Alphas… They must have still been fighting the zombies. I could feel them, distinctly. There was pain there, just as it was ahead. Please God, I needed... If Molly wasn’t able to… No. I needed her awake. I sent her Name again. _Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter,_ _ **awaken**_ _. Get up, Molly. Come on._

More stirring, and I smelled the rotting stench of a ghoul’s claws, feeling their hunger. Fuck. Was this where they’d come? We hadn’t seen where the ghouls landed, and I wasn’t sure if they’d survived. The smell told me otherwise. Molly as she was… She’d be a sitting duck. So I made my way to where my sister laid. Shit, there’d been a gravestone near there. Had her head struck it? No. Until proven otherwise, no. She’d wake up. I’d make sure of it. _Margaret. Katherine. Amanda. Carpenter. WAKE THE FUCK UP!_

Twin inhuman roars sounded from either side of Molly and I, and I could hear as heavy bodies left the ground. In that instant, Molly sat up, we locked eyes and we joined our left hands, extending our right. The falling snow slowed, nearly pausing in the air, giving us the perfect view of the pair of ghouls, one with the muzzle of a jackal, the other with the jaws of a grizzly. They hovered mid-leap, claws extended on either side of us, and we simply aimed.

“ _Sessakufuu._ ” We focused the wind again, making it razor sharp, and we pushed. The wind bit into the fur-covered flesh of the ghouls, pushing them back out of their leap as the snow fell at normal speed again. The wind buffeted onward and through, driving knife-like icicles into the ghouls in the process. They must have come from the trees, falling as we used the wind. We focused our anger, our fear and kept this power going. If the First Law of Magic applied to nonhumans, we’d probably just broken it, but this was do or die.

We’d much rather it be them instead of us. The ghoul bodies… upon hitting the ground, they fell apart. There would be no regenerating from what just happened, not when the top-left of their bodies separated from the rest. God, what had we done?

“Necessary,” we whispered, and we made sure we could stand. “it was necessary.” _And they were fucking ghouls_ , a part of us thought. We agreed with it, but it was… Lord, that feeling… we felt their lives slip away. We could feel their last moments, the fear, the anguish, the anger, and the hunger. No. It was wrong. It was… Fuck, what had we done?

“Those were good kills,” one of Marcone’s men said, tossing the body of a zombie to the side, sliding it off his sword. Lord, he was huge. We didn’t think that this was the normal sort of man that Marcone employed. “Worthy of a place in Valhalla. Are the two of you all right? I saw you engage the necromancer.”

We glanced over to where Guase and Sanya were fighting. Sanya paried her spells with Esperacchius, being forced back slightly before charging again. I gasped as two ghosts came from behind him to grab the Knight, but he slashed at their arms with his saber, then blocked another spell from Guase. The energies she was throwing around. Fuck. We were way out of our league, and her boss was worse. We couldn’t let Kemmler get resurrected if that was her goal.

“I’m fine,” I said, in unison with my sister. We might not have been fully linked at the moment, but we still thought alike. I continued, “We need to stop her—”

“—but how?” Molly looked over the graveyard as I did. The drum’s beat still kept going.

“There still are zombies to deal with,” said Marcone’s man, no, a Monoc Security guy. “If the two of you are—”

Drew’s ghost slammed into me, pushing me away from my sister and the Monoc Security man. How did I miss him? How could I have missed this emotion? This… rage… This longing… this…. Fuck, it was Drew. Drew had every right to hate me, to despise me for what I couldn’t do. His spectral arms slammed me against the wall of a mausoleum, holding me there as he curled his fingers into claws.

“Faith, you left me alone!” Drew snarled as he clawed at me, and I raised an arm to try and block it. His hand passed through the arm and into my chest, pulling… _something_. It hurt. Oh fuck, did it hurt. God, Drew… I didn’t want to… I really didn’t want to… With each statement, he punctuated with a claw. “You let her kill me! She tortured me! She tore my heart out!”

“Drew, I didn’t… I didn’t know… I didn’t think…” I stammered, wincing with each blow. What could I do? This was _Drew_. He was… I didn’t want… It was…

“She tore my heart out, Faith!” Drew growled. “I’m going to have you join me. Tearing out your own heart…”

Drew wouldn’t do this. Drew couldn’t. How was he doing this? Please, God… I just… The rage I felt from him, the despair… the cold sense of _emptiness_. Wait. Emptiness? I needed to think. I needed time to think.

“S-S- _Soukotte!_ ” I cried out, focusing my magic to keep it localized to myself, and though I was pinned in place by Drew’s spectral form, his claws weren’t quite digging into me yet. I had time. I had time to breathe, time to think. Drew was a ghost, but he was able to interact with me. I needed to be logical here. Push the emotion out. _Use_ the emotion for what I needed it for, but I needed to not let it prevent me from doing what was necessary.

What did I know about ghosts? One: ghosts were _not_ the souls of the people that they were made from. This meant that regardless of the being’s appearance in front of me, whatever I did to it, I wasn’t doing it to Drew. Two: ghosts were actually a collection of memories that came from the people they were made from. If they ran low on memories, they became… other things. Three: ghosts normally can’t interact with the material world. I’d been betting that the reason Drew could was because of something Guase did. Something related to the spell. I probably was right, but that brought us to item four: memories can be transferred between ghosts, but the emotions that came with them wouldn’t be felt the same way.

Fuck. There was only one way I could think of that’d let me see if I was right. If Guase had done something to Drew’s ghost, there was only one way to tell. I could feel energy all day long, but that alone wouldn’t let me know. I knew whatever Guase did, it would be burned onto my memory forever if I did this, but I didn’t have a choice. I looked past Drew’s clawed hand and around. More ghosts on Sanya, along with another spell from the necromancer. There, I could see Murphy and Hendricks standing in formation with Marcone and Gard. The Alphas were bloody, but they stood fine. However, if I looked only at Drew, the only thing else I’d see… was the swirling storm above the ritual site and the blue energy. It was time.

I opened my Sight. The Sight is more than just vision, really. It encompasses more or less all of the senses, but it guarantees that what you see will be the real thing, be true. If the thing attacking me truly was Drew’s ghost, I’d be able to see what Guase did to him and maybe stop it.

What I did see, when I Saw Drew’s ghost… I saw a being cloaked in black shadow that slithered along the ground. Where Drew’s ghost’s hands had curled into a claw-like shape, the being had genuine skeletal claws poking out from its shadows, long, sharp, and pointed. Still it hovered there, stuck in place until I released my spell. The head… Its head… Drew’s face was wrapped around its head like a Halloween mask. I suspected that if I were to release my spell or it ended, I’d hear whatever this _thing_ ’s voice truly sounded like in dual-tone with Drew’s voice. Lemur. Wraith. One of the two. I’d have to ask Mort Lindquist when this was over what it was, but this certainly wasn’t Drew. It wasn’t Drew’s ghost at all, but it was something that Guase had made to have Drew’s memory, mannerisms, shape, _taste_.

I looked past the thing that wasn’t Drew, and I gasped. The ritual… God, I could see the energies of the leylines, shaping around the book. I could see the sky opening up and the ground below it mirroring the same. What was Guase doing? Why was the book’s cover dripping with blood? Was this…. No, this couldn’t be where Kemmler was buried, could it? He’d had to have been cremated this last time they killed him, right? Whatever it was… it needed to be stopped.

I reached into my pocket with my right hand, and pulled out a handful of Harry’s ghost dust. This. Fucking. Bitch. I closed my Sight, and as I released the perception spell, I shoved my hand into the… not-Drew thing and released the dust inside.

“Faith, what?” The not-Drew thing managed to look confused, but all I could feel from it was its anger, its hate, its despair. No, whatever this thing was, it wasn’t Drew. It wore the man who would have been my boyfriend’s face, and it dared… I shook the dust around, and the not-Drew thing hissed and pulled away from me, allowing me to drop to the ground.

I didn’t even give it a chance to recover, channeling all my anger, all my hate. Both my gloves flared blue and sparks leaped between my fingers. Fuck this thing. It dared to wear Drew’s face? It dared to make me... to pretend to be Drew? Fuck no. I held my hands barely apart from each other, and I snarled out my spell. “ _Fulminaga!_ ”

Lightning lanced into the not-Drew thing, pushing through its body and I still held the spell. The fucking thing needed to go away. Gone. Now. The ghost dust did its job, anchoring it in place long enough for my spell to work. Energy swirled around my lightning as I pulsed it at the dark ghost, forcing my memories of Drew to the surface. The fucking thing would regret impersonating my friend before it perished for good. I held it for ten seconds, and the thing’s Drew mask burst off in a shred of light, and then it collapsed into shards… showing some sort of faded lights coming off of it.

“You… aren’t…. him… fucker…” I breathed out, looking at the remains as they turned into ectoplasm. Fucking whatever it was. It wasn’t Drew. It _wasn’t_. God, I hoped it wasn’t. I needed to get back to Molly.

_Fai!_ Molly sent to me, and I ran toward her, ignoring the snowy terrain. She stood now, leaning against the Monoc Security guy. “Fai, you’re okay…”

“Not… fully…” I said, looking toward Sanya. Guase managed to nail him with something, but he still stood. The power of God was on his side, but our power needed to be as well. “Hey uh, you…” I addressed the Monoc Security guy.

“Yes?”

“See if you can take out the drummer…” I looked to my sister, and she nodded. She wasn’t really in any shape to be moving the way we needed to, but she could do things remotely. I gave her the wand I’d found, and she pulled out her other. We knew what we were going to be doing.

“What do you plan on doing?” The security guy asked.

I reached into my jacket’s pocket and pulled two things from within. I hooked the shadow capture crystal onto my necklace, nestling it between my crucifix and my pentacle, and I grasped the manacles Gard had given me with my left hand.

“Something magical.” I could only hope it worked.

  



	37. Chapter Thirty-Five

Something magical, I’d said. Maybe I’d taken more from Harry’s lessons than just learning magic. I knew coming into this that Guase was going to be a dangerous opponent. Molly and I were still apprentices, and we were going to be up against a fully-trained necromancer, one who followed the teachings of Heinrich Kemmler. If it came to straight magic versus magic, Guase would have my sister and I beat. We both knew it. Molly and I had neither the power nor the experience to take on a sorcerer or wizard of Guase’s caliber in a direct fight. Which is why I came up with the plan that I did.

Back in the police station, when the ghouls had attacked, looking for the book, they’d used a fear compulsion. Now ghouls don’t tend to have the ability to use magic on their own, and those that do tend to specialize in a specific area that helps them do their one purpose in life: feed. This was a fear compulsion provided by an artifact that was given to them by Guase, as Molly and I found out in Undertown. While I’d been able to push through the fear, primarily thanks to Molly and my own personal protections, Miss Gard had managed to use a spell to protect not only herself but Marcone and Hendricks as well. When I’d called to speak with Marcone, I’d managed to speak with Miss Gard and I’d asked for something, something I’d been reminded of after my… incident… with Mab.

It was something fresh in my mind. There was a way to suppress magic in people, by using an artifact that usually came in the form of manacles. Normally these were of fae make, and they would bite into the skin of the person wearing them to help keep them from casting. However, what I’d asked was if Gard was able to produce some of her own with her runic magic. Imagine my surprise when the woman said she’d already had some ready to go. It must have had something to do with the soulgaze that Marcone had shared with Harry. That could be the only real explanation.

When we met up in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot and Gard explained the scouting reports from the cemetery, she’d also given me the manacles and explained how they worked. I needed to get close to Guase, clasp the manacles around her wrists, preferably both of them, and the runes would activate. Assuming it worked, Guase wouldn’t be able to cast a spell, and any spells she was currently maintaining would end. Assuming it worked, and I was able to get close enough.

I flicked at the shadow capture crystal around my neck with my right hand, and Molly moved herself into position. Sanya still kept Guase busy, but I wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to keep it up. He might have been a Knight of the Cross, but Guase was a necromancer, crafty and experienced. The Knights were meant to oppose the Denarians and destroy monsters that would impede Free Will, but I wasn’t sure where necromancers fell on that scale. If Sanya had to offer a chance of redemption, she’d spurn it or use trickery on him. No, we needed to get her out of the fight, now, so the ritual could end. She had to be the anchor. Sanya sliced into another solidified wraith, cutting through its spectral form and then following through to deflect Guase’s next spell into a nearby gravestone. The gravestone shattered when the spell impacted it, and I winced.

The bitch needed to get what was coming to her, and this was the only way. If I were to get hit…

_You won’t get hit, Fai_ Molly’s presence was appreciated as she focused her will. I knew what was coming, and so did she. We’d never actually attempted something in this sort of matter before. Together, we were more powerful, but we had the weakness in that we _acted_ as one there. We had never managed to do an individual action while synchronized before, but needs must. We needed to join together, become one, but we needed to act separately, and so we _would_.

Lightly now, we kept our awareness. We needed to get close to Guase while staying away. We weren’t quite ready or in position yet to set up what we needed, but we’d approach while we stood behind that tree. Watching us, keeping an eye out for any oncoming danger, we readied ourselves for what we knew we needed.

We moved across the snow-covered cemetery, trying not to attract the attention of any of the zombies that were otherwise engaged with the other combatants. Murphy had managed to acquire a rifle from somewhere, and she was showing off her marksmanship as she blew a hole through a zombie’s eye sockets, just before two of the Alphas tackled it and tore out its throat. Marcone had a shotgun that appeared to be full of either ghost dust or rock salt, as he blasted into the ghosts that charged him, while Hendricks dealt with the oncoming zombies. Where were they all coming fr—oh right, cemetery. Plenty of bodies for the necromancer to retrieve and use for her scheme. The question was, how was she even able to do that while fighting Sanya?

We glanced to the manacles. It didn’t matter. The bitch would stop soon enough. We continued toward the fight, but a zombie crossed our path. We didn’t even flinch as it started running toward us. Charging. We’d deal with it as need be, our gloves lighting up red, keeping its focus on us. Fuck this zombie. “ _Hin—”_

A lithe wolf whose fur was matted in blood tackled the zombie to the ground, tearing into it. Blood spilled from the zombie’s neck, further coating the wolf’s muzzle. Georgia pulled up from the zombie, and she looked at us, urging us to go on, to do whatever we had planned. She trusted in us the way she trusted Harry, and that… Well, that was something.

We twirled our wands, and repeated that spell we cast in Undertown. Doubles. We needed doubles. Doubles of the us that would cuff her. The more targets she had, the better, especially if none of them were real. We tapped the shadow capture crystal, using the shadows within to strengthen the doubles, to link them with our actions and our movements.

Grey, faceless spectral forms appeared in front of us, and we slammed our hands together, in unison with the doubles. Fucking ghosts. Fucking zombies. Fucking ghouls. Fucking Guase. “ _Fulminara!_ ”

Without even pausing, we blasted the wraiths, leaving whatever was left behind us as we pushed forward. Guase needed to be stopped.

The ground rumbled for a second and I felt something wrap around my ankle, bringing my full attention to the right there. Molly and I had been doing it, damnit. The thing around my ankle squeezed, stronger than anything that size should have been able to. I felt individual fingers there. Zombie. Under the ground, zombie. Fuck. It was coming up… it was going to stop me from doing what I needed to, and it hadn’t even been distracted by the illusory doubles on either side of me. Oh fuck, that hurt. My heart started racing. If I didn’t keep moving… if I failed here, Drew’s death meant nothing. Defeating the thing with Drew’s face meant _nothing_.

_Fai!_ Molly sent. _You can do this, figure it out…_

“Faith!” Murphy called. “What’s wrong, what’s going on?” She shot out another zombie’s eye as she started toward me.

“No! Guard Molly!” I called out, trying to figure out how I could deal with this. If the thing squeezed any tighter, my ankle was done for. Broken at best, nearly torn out of its socket at worst. Why was it going so slow? It had to have something to do with Guase’s distraction. If the bitch was fully focused, I’d probably be dead. Another thing to thank Sanya for, but as the zombified hand started to squeeze tighter, I realized I needed an out, fast. Guns wouldn’t do it, and I wasn’t sure… I didn’t know what else I could do. I just needed something, anything that I could think of…

A cold calm settled in the pit of my stomach, and the circles on my gloves lit a brilliant blue. I slammed a hand on either side of the captured leg, and I pushed, channeling this calm, this brilliance down the leg and into the fingers that were wrapped around my ankle. I would _not_ let something like this stop me from reaching my prey. The bitch was going down. I pulled my ankle sharply, and I heard the crackling of ice as I pulled my foot free. The cold of the snow numbed the pain on my ankle a bit, but it’d smart later. A lot.

_Plan B?_ Molly asked me, and I nodded, drawing further on the shadow capture crystal. We weren’t quite as linked as we’d been before, but Molly and I were linked enough.

“ _Sfumare…”_ I wrapped myself in shadow, blending myself into the surroundings as Molly reinforced the illusions, giving them more detail, giving them more articulated movement. We needed to do this right. My veils might not be as good as my sister’s, but with her help and the use of the new focus, I’d be able to approach closely.

Ahead, Sanya and Guase still fought. Daddy might have been a master swordsman, but Sanya was close to his level in every way, and _Esperacchius_ was a saber, much smaller than the broadsword, _Amoracchius_. The two required different sword styles, but they stemmed from similar movements. As Guase cast, the two ghosts behind Sanya would engage him, in an attempt to distract, but Sanya just cut through them with a horizontal slash from his saber. God, the man was good. He’d barely been affected by anything the necromancer had cast thusfar, with only superficial damage being done to his clothing, revealing some of his muscles to the cold air. I forced myself not to stare as I checked him for wounds from afar. Drew had barely been dead a day. I needed to avenge my boyfriend.

I shifted my attention to Guase as she let out another burst of magic with an incantation I couldn’t hear over the roaring of the wind. A wave of blue light containing a similar cold energy to that in the vortex above mixed with a force that felt cutting spread from her hand toward the Knight. Sanya shifted his stance slightly and sliced upward, cutting the spell in twain, but it didn’t cause the spell to dissipate. No, instead the spell simply split, arcing around Sanya’s body before rejoining on the other side for another try. Sanya brought Esperacchius up again, driving the saber’s tip into the spell’s energy and this time, the two opposed energies clashed. The necromantic wave pressed on the Sword of Hope, driving Sanya into the snow, the sheer force of which cutting into his clothes. Fuck. I needed to do something.

Using my link with Molly, we spoke as one, using the doubles. It was time to take another page from the Book of Harry.

“Hey, Guase,” We called out through the doubles, as I kept silent myself. Molly made them move the way I would, echoing my voice through each of them. Our voice. “Why don’t you pick on someone with magic rather than continuing your racist bullshit?”

Guase sneered, glancing over her shoulder at… well, at one of my doubles. She clearly could see the rest of them, but she didn’t pay them any mind. “If you want my attention, girl, you’ll have to try harder.” The clash between Esperacchius and Guase’s spell intensified, driving Sanya further into the snow. Bits of energy dug into his skin, simultaneously freezing it and cutting it open.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” we made the doubles say in a mocking tone as I inched closer to her, still holding my veil. “Forgive me for interrupting you, oh disciple of Kemmler, except you never were his disciple, were you?” She actually might have been his disciple at one point, but she never appeared in my memories. Only three Kemmlerites and their associates appeared, but their associates weren’t trained by Kemmler himself.

“The Master did train me…” Guase growled out and the clash’s intensity lessened. Huh. Sore point. Maybe she really had been trained by the crazed bastard, but maybe she hadn’t. Necromancers weren’t exactly a bastion of reliable information, after all. Still, she’d reacted when Drew’d called her Corpsetaker. Maybe that was a wound we could pick at. Get her focused on that.

How the fuck did Harry do this so easily?

“Did he, now?” we asked with the doubles. I was nearly there, maybe forty feet more. I could probably dash that if necessary. “Then why weren’t you favored like Corpsetaker, Grevane, or Cowl? Why are you trying to bring him back rather than do… whatever he’d want you to do?”

“He wants us to bring him back!” Guase snarled, and with a burst, the spell Sanya clashed with exploded outward, leaving a divot in the snow. Sanya remained mostly protected by _Esperacchius’s_ gifts, and he still stood. She sneered as she turned toward us. “These petty illusions are nothing before the gifts of the True Magic. Surrender now, and I will consider giving you to the Master as slaves.”

Well, we had her attention now. I wasn’t entirely sure what emotions were going through her, given the oversaturation of the area, but they also seemed to shift on a whim. One second, she was angry, the next calm, the next, sad, the next happy, etcetera. The woman was certifiable. This had to be from the necromancy, or perhaps she just wasn’t actually sane to begin with.

“Necromancy’s not True Magic, bitch. It’s a corruption.” I moved closer as the illusions spoke. Thirty-five feet more and I’d have her. I’d get the manacles on—

“I see you,” Guase said in a sing-song voice, and she leveled her hand at me. “ _Sterben_. _Über sterben_.”

Shit. I had barely any time to react, not even enough time to increase my perception as the blue spell which had simply been an arc before was now a wide beam coming straight at me, where I hid with my veil. Fuck. There was only one thing I _could_ do in this situation. I couldn’t dive out of the way, not from the distance I had between myself and her. There was no room to actually move. So I did the only thing I could.

“ _Fusegi!_ ” I held up my left hand, feeling my sister’s magic join with my own as a translucent quarter dome of silvered energy shimmered into being between my body and the spell. With my sister reinforcing it, it was better than I could do on my own. Together, we were stronger than separate. We held the shield in place as Guase’s spell struck like a wrecking ball. The beam of necromantic energy pushed hard against the shield, bearing down upon it as I held my hand out.

We couldn’t hold this forever, and we might not have been able to hold it long enough for Guase to stop pushing it out. That’s where Daddy’s training came in. The energy striking upon the shield spread out, illuminating the area in front of me such that we could move without being actually seen. Guase had to know that our shield would fail in the force of her attack, which is why she kept up with the power. We knew too, so we sidestepped, pushing against the beam the entire way, and then, when we no longer felt resistance, I dashed at the necromancer.

I barely touched the ground as I passed between myself and Guase, keeping my focus purely on her while dragging my shield along the beam. I could see Sanya getting to his feet out of the corner of my eye along with the ghosts he’d have to deal with, but I couldn’t spare him my attention. Twenty feet… ten feet… It wouldn’t be long now. The look on her face as I approached was something I’d savor for a long time, somewhere between hatred and surprise.

I tackled the bitch, slamming one manacle on her right hand the moment I could. The beam dissipated the moment the manacle clasped around her wrist or maybe the moment I tackled her. I didn’t know if it was fully blocking her magic yet, so I didn’t let up. I hooked my leg around and slammed my booted foot into the back of her leg. I elbowed her in the solar plexus and slammed my foot onto her leg again as I grasped for her other arm while still clutching the manacles.

As scary as Guase was, she was still an arrogant wizard who clearly thought I couldn’t get to her. That said, she fought back, elbowing me in the gut, just above my wound from the previous day. She tried to get her arms away, but I had the leverage on her. I could feel as zombies started approaching, but I slammed my head against hers. She couldn’t control the zombies if she couldn’t think. I wouldn’t give the bitch a chance to cast another spell. I pulled her arms behind her back, using as much strength as I could to do so, and I clasped the other manacle. I growled out the activation phrase, and I felt… something… as the manacles acted. I stood up behind her, keeping her forced onto her knees.

“What?” Guase asked, surprise and pain evident in her voice. Maybe the manacles were working properly. “What did you do?”

I heard a thump from about fifteen feet away as the drumming stopped, and I glared at Guase, avoiding her eyes. “Made things a bit more even, bitch.”

The fucking bitch deserved everything and more. I was going to make sure she paid for what she did. She killed Drew. She needed to go down.

“Oh… Oh yes,” Guase laughed. “I’m at your mercy… Just what do you plan on doing about that?”

“You killed Drew…” I glared at her, and my gloves sparked. The need for vengeance screamed at me from within. I had her here. She couldn’t cast anything. All I needed to do was a fully powered Fulminaga, and she’d die. As powerful as she was, I could kill her, take from her what she took from Drew. Make sure she never hurt anyone ever again.

Or, if I didn’t want to kill her, I could do to her what she did to Drew’s ghost. I could tear away everything from her mind. Piece by piece, I could leave her a gibbering wreck. Leave her alone, forgotten in a mental asylum, never able to put herself together again. I had the power, with or without Molly. I could take her apart, electrocute the remains, and throw her away never to be seen again.

“What are you waiting for, girl? Do it. You know you want to. Kill me. Murder me. Take the True Magic within you and use it!” Guase sneered. “Or perhaps you’re too much of a coward, and you should let me go.”

I could kill her. I could erase her mind. I could even claim that I was right to do so, and oh God, a part of me wanted to do just that, as my gloves continued sparking. Sure, the Wardens might have held it against me, but where the fuck were they? Why hadn’t they answered the call? I could just….

“Fai,” Molly said as she got close. “Don’t.”

I swallowed, narrowing my eyes, and then I placed my hand on the shoulder of Guase. “ _Fulmina_.”

Electricity ran through the necromancer’s body. Not enough to kill, but about the equivalent of a taser discharge. I wasn’t sure that it’d be enough, which is why I was happy when Marcone came over to me.

“Miss Carpenter,” Marcone said, looking at me.

“Mister Marcone,” I said, gesturing at the now somewhat limp form of Guase, though she had a mad smile upon her face. “I give you Guase, the necromancer. The bitch who killed your man and mine.”

Marcone nodded and made a gesture with his hand. “Thank you for the confirmation.”

Guase’s brain exploded out the right side of her head.

  



	38. Chapter Thirty-Six

I wanted… I wanted her dead. I wanted her punished for what she did to Drew. I wanted her stopped from hurting anyone else. I should have been… well, maybe not happy, but satisfied, perhaps, at the death of Guase. What I felt at the moment though? I felt sick to my stomach. I hadn’t even heard the gunshot, but I’d felt the impact, felt what she did as what remained of her soul left her body, felt the anger, fear, doubt, pain, and the fading. It wasn’t right… Fuck, I hated my empathy sometimes, and I couldn’t block it out from this distance.

Still. “Never let them see you sweat” was one of the first lessons that Harry taught us. So as much as I wanted to cry, as much as I wanted to vomit up the contents of my stomach and just run the fuck away from the dead body that I was _still supporting in my arms_ , I couldn’t. Molly might not have been as close to the event as I was, but I knew she felt many of the same things, and she couldn’t. We needed to be strong, stay strong until this was over. We might not have been wizards yet, but we needed to comport ourselves as such.

What I _did_ do was drop the body to the ground and back away from it, giving a small glare to Marcone.

“You were supposed to take her with you, Mister Marcone.” I looked over the snow-covered cemetery, and I breathed out a sigh of relief when I saw four furry bodies moving toward where we were. Sure, they clearly were covered in blood and viscera as they limped through the snow, but they lived. Given what I’d seen… what Guase had shown me, I’d feared the worst. There was no sign of any of the ghosts, but a few zombies remained standing… _only_ standing. Without the drums or someone directing them, it seemed like they were in a calm state. Murphy stood near one of Marcone’s people, one of the larger ones with a thick red beard. She seemed to be in good shape, albeit with some blood on her clothing; with how the zombies were, she seemed to be taking a bit of a breather. Hendricks and Gard stood a bit behind Marcone, looking a little worse for the wear, but I only counted a total of five of the men Marcone had brought as backup that still stood. Three of them were the larger guys, and two were the more normal sized men. I assumed that a third normal sized guy was a bit further off with a gun, but that still meant that Marcone lost some people here. Fuck.

“Apologies, Miss Carpenter,” Marcone smoothly said. “But taking chances with powerful sorcerers is not good business. Now, is there more that must be done?”

My eyes were drawn toward the somehow undisturbed area where the book laid, still in the middle of a painted circle. I’d lost sight of it during the fight, and I was a little disturbed that the snow had managed to fall in a circular pattern around it, leaving the circle itself untouched. Energy still ran through the leylines, being channeled into the circle, but I couldn’t tell for what purpose. Whatever it was, it needed to be disrupted or ended. If this truly was to bring Kemmler back, then it needed to be stopped. We’d barely dealt with Guase. Kemmler would be a whole other level.

“The book,” I said, walking toward the circle, Molly approaching lockstep with me. “It needs to be secured.”

Molly nodded.

“I’ll have my men secure the perimeter,” Marcone said.

“That is a good idea, Mister Marcone,” Sanya said as he approached from somewhere off to my side; I was too focused on the circle itself to notice how he held _Esperacchius_. “I will be watching the girls to make sure that they remain safe.”

I felt a flare of exasperation from Marcone, but he walked away, even as I approached the circle. Molly and I started walking around it, going around in opposite directions to meet at the other side, getting a feel for the energies flowing through it. Each leyline seemed to provide a different component to the energy, passing in through each distended point of the star. The book itself sat in the center of the pentacle, drawing the energy into itself, and it really… Well, it looked different from this angle. I could tell that it was the same book, the one that had started this whole mess. Fucking book. I normally enjoyed reading too.

There was really only one way to go about doing this. I glanced to Molly, seeing that she realized it too. One of us would have to go in to get the book. With it within a circle, we didn’t want to try to use magic to pull it out only to have it stopped by the circle, and walking into the circle should disrupt it anyway.

_I’ll do it_. I glanced at the book. It was going to suck for the both of us with the circle separating us from each other, but we’d dealt with it before. _Moll, get back with Sanya._

_Fai, you’re—_

_Not concussed. Not nearly about to pass out from e—okay, I’m pretty close on the emotional backlash thing, but I’m going to do it, Moll. You’re wobbling more than I am._ I knew I was right, and Molly knew I was right, and I knew that she knew that I knew that she knew I was right. My sister didn’t have to like it, but she had to accept it.

Molly sighed and gestured as she went back to Sanya. I could hear him asking something of her, but given my focus on the circle, I couldn’t quite make it out. Something about Murphy and—Nope. I was focusing on the circle that I was about to step through. I was not going to let Sanya’s idea of _fierceness_ prevent me from doing what I needed to do. The best place to step in seemed to be between points on the star, but as I stepped close, my ankle twinged slightly. I grimaced, but I pushed through it. This wasn’t the first time I’d dealt with ankle pain, and I doubted it would be the last. I stepped into the circle.

Normally when you step through the invisible barrier of an active circle or are breaking a circle from within, there’s a slight bit of resistance, almost as if the circle doesn’t want to give. Most people won’t even notice it, given their lack of attunement with magic, but I did. This circle, on the other hand, didn’t have any sort of barrier, not even a slight one, at least from the outside. The moment I passed the threshold of it, I had to wonder… why. Fuck. I’d thought the energy from the leylines had been impressive from outside the circle, when I was feeling them beneath the ground. Lord, this much magic… How could the circle be containing it? How could it still be containing it if I’d broken the circle?

As I thought that, I looked, and I felt the circle snap closed, properly. No more energy was coming in from the points of the star, even as the lines of the star lit up brightly in multicolored magic. Fucking hell, what was this? Was Guase trying to come back somehow?

“This… might have been a mistake,” I said aloud, mostly to myself, but I could see Molly heard me, even if I couldn’t feel it.

“You think?” Molly called as she moved closer to the circle.

“Wait!” With the energies that were flowing in here, I didn’t want to break the circle without finding a way to direct them properly. My eyes flicked to the book at the center of all of this. “Oh, this was a dumb plan. We should have gotten a stick or something. Don’t break the circle, Moll. There’s a lot of energy in here.”

“Fai, I can’t let you stay in there.” Molly crossed her arms, but I shook my head.

“Faith, what do you plan on doing?” Sanya asked, a few steps behind Molly.

“Not sure yet,” I said, not letting any fear show as I walked over to the book and picked it up, looking at its cover. I knew from the feel that this had been _Die Lied der Erlking_ when I’d held it earlier, but the title on the cover didn’t say that. No, it said _Blood of Kemmler_. Fuck. I was in a circle with a book written by one of the most prolific necromancers of all time and a shitton of energy. “I… really have no clue what I should do here, Moll, Sanya.”

Molly’s tensing was the only thing that warned me before I heard a distorted feminine voice, “Perhaps I can help with your predicament.”

Kumori. The necromancer still wore a hooded cloak that covered her face in shadow, and she’d come from… actually, I hadn’t seen where she’d managed to show up from. Perhaps it had been the Nevernever, but I couldn’t tell from within the circle. Molly might have known, given she probably felt the woman’s arrival, but I didn’t.

“Kumori,” I said, keeping my voice level. She should have shown up earlier if she’d planned on helping, not after Guase was already taken care of. Not when I held the fucking _Blood of Kemmler_ in my hands. “Why didn’t you help earlier? There were zombies… there still _are_ zombies around, even without Guase to power them and the drummer drumming.”

Maybe it had been Nevernever time lag; I’d heard that time passes differently within the Nevernever sometimes, and while it didn’t during my only trip to faerieland, it certainly felt like it had been longer than what had passed. Still, she needed one hell of a good excuse or to be some sort of actual help if she wanted any sort of trust. For a necromancer. Fuck, I didn’t want to trust her based on principle there.

“ _Shi_.” Kumori waved a hand, and a bolt of what appeared to be red lightning spread out from her hand and struck down in various parts in the cemetery, the closest being the grave that a zombie’s hand had grabbed my ankle out of. The spell ran into the ground, and, judging from the rest of the zombies, it seemed to do something to drain what was animating the bodies out of them. Shit. Judging from Molly’s body language, that had been a supremely powerful spell, and with what it was capable of, it must have been the sheer power of her experience. I’d known that Kumori had power to her, given the deflection trick she did, but I hadn’t guessed that much. Perhaps I should have guessed more, given her mentor. “There, no more zombies. Now, your predicament is a little tougher. The circle you are in has been collecting energy from the leylines that cross here, but there is a way to handle it safely.”

Be polite. Don’t piss off the necromancer that didn’t kill Drew. Be polite. “Just how should I go about doing that?” I glanced down at the book in my hands. God, I hoped she didn’t want me to do something with this book. The only thing that the book was good for was madness. Well, madness and kindling. The only reason I hadn’t ignited it yet was because I wasn’t sure how the floating energies would react to my casting within their purview. I didn’t want to turn the circle into a pillar of flame to rival the one the Hebrews followed, and I definitely didn’t want to immolate myself.

“It’s simple, really…” Kumori’s voice made me shudder. Whatever the woman was doing made the words come out feeling like they were coated in slime, slithering into my ear like some sort of slug. At least her words couldn’t control me unless I obeyed them. “Redirect the energies into the ground when you break the circle. Your sister should be able to help with this, and so shall I. The three of us together should be able to contain it, releasing the energies back into the leylines. You will need to trust me.”

“Trust is hard to give to a woman who hides her face and disguises her voice,” Molly said.

“Yes, Molly is correct,” Sanya said. “However, if you are willing to help, perhaps there might be a way to gain the trust, Miss Kumori.”

Kumori turned to look at Sanya, and I got the impression that she liked what she saw, but I couldn’t be sure. “Of course, Sir Knight. I am not asking that you trust me completely. It would be foolish to do so, especially as there are reasons that I cannot reveal myself to you, but trust in my actions. If it were my goal to harm any of you, I would have let Guase’s zombies kill you earlier today.”

I grimaced. There really wasn’t much a choice, at least not one that would be a viable one. I didn’t really want to stay in the circle until sunrise, which was still a good amount of time away. “Moll, let’s do it.”

“Yeah, okay.” Molly nodded. “Little choice, but if she tries anything—”

“—you’ll run like hell behind Sanya. Ace in the holes only work once,” I said.

“I can hear you,” Kumori said. “I am not deaf.”

“We know,” Molly and I said in unison. “Let’s get started.”

“Very well. Draw in the energy with your left hand and release it with your right into the ground. Curve both hands so your fingers are pointed toward the ground with the tips parallel and pull the moment the circle breaks.” Kumori held out her own slender-gloved hand as she demonstrated. Not really seeing an alternative, I copied her, book held under my left arm and Molly did the same. Kumori approached the edge of the circle, and I focused, readying to redirect the energy the best I could. The necromancer kicked snow through the edge of the circle, and we began.

I don’t know how to describe what it felt like. Something between touching a live wire and touching… well, something personal. The energies of the leylines passed through our bodies and into the ground, the entire process taking less than a minute. Kumori must have done more than Molly and I, but the sheer amount of energy we redirected… God, it was tiring and… Wow. It might have taken less than a minute, but each second of doing it felt like an hour, and I hadn’t even been increasing my perception.

When it finally ended, I felt like bending over and panting, but I forced myself to straighten up and lowered my hands. Sanya pointedly did not look at Molly or I, and I could guess why. We were still sixteen-year-old girls. I ignored the heat in my cheeks and turned to Kumori. “Thank you.”

“It was my pleasure,” the woman said in her distorted voice. “Now, we come to the remaining issue of that book.”

The book! I let it slip out from under my arm, down the length of my forearm and into my hand. This book, _Blood of Kemmler_ , had been such trouble, especially when it had been _Die Lied der Erlking_. It just needed to go away, but Kumori had earned enough to not be given the runaround on it. “This book?”

“Yes,” Kumori said, cocking her head within the cloak. I could almost see her eyes narrowing from within the shadows of her hood as she read the book’s title. “That book. Please give it to me.”

Ah. There it was. The other shoe. Kumori was in it for the book too. Still, it didn’t hurt to be polite. Manners cost nothing. “I thought you said that you weren’t a Kemmlerite.”

“I am _not_ ,” Kumori hissed out, and I could feel her anger slipping past whatever distortion enchantment she used. It was genuine, sure. “That book contains many things on the True Magic, things that you may not understand, and things that are too dangerous to let out to untrained practitioners. The book is too dangerous to let fall into the wrong hands.”

“I agree,” I said, glancing to Molly and Sanya. I knew my sister agreed with the path forward, and Sanya… I just felt a bit of pride from him, along with an eagerness. If Kumori crossed us, we had a Knight on our side who would be able to protect us. Still, the _Blood of Kemmler_ was too dangerous to let anyone have, let alone someone who could be a Kemmlerite and called necromancy the “True” magic. I held open my right hand, and I held the book above it. “ _Ignicus._ ”

A small ball of flame appeared above my hand, dead in the middle of the book itself. As the pages ignited, I held the book by its spine. I held the book until its entirety was smoldering, and I threw it to the ground near Kumori. She looked down at the book from within her cloak, and I felt… I wasn’t sure exactly. It seemed to be a mixture of frustration, anger, and satisfaction that came from the woman. Maybe a little bit of pride was there as well, but I couldn’t be truly sure that was her and not Sanya, given his major increase with my destruction of the book.

Molly walked over and stood next to me, entwining her right hand in my left, and I closed my right, ending the spell. I could see Murphy approaching, escorted by the Alphas, but we needed to keep our focus on Kumori.

“Now, nobody can use it,” Molly said. “Guase’s attempt is over.”

Kumori shook her hood slightly. “There still remains one last task. I will ensure Guase is unable to return, but I owe what I have promised.”

My heart clenched, and Molly squeezed my hand. Kumori cast something that I couldn’t quite make out, and a tear opened in reality, a line drew itself across the air, and what was there peeled away, revealing another area underneath. Normally, this was how wizards would go through the Nevernever, but it didn’t appear that Kumori had opened to any part of the Nevernever that I’d heard of. She’d opened to a room with a bed, and she thrust out her hand, and she pulled out… a floating body. It… Oh God, it was Drew. It was Drew’s body, and she floated it over to Molly and I. His left arm… it had been severed right above the elbow, and he still wore the clothes that he wore the previous day, coated in his blood. Except… as the body lowered to the ground, I noticed something: his arm… it had been bandaged tightly in what looked like a tourniquet. His chest… Oh god, his chest was rising and falling…

“Fai…” Molly said as I leaned down to pull Drew’s head up to my chest. I could feel a pulse…. I could… He was…

“He’s alive, Moll…” I whispered in reverence. “Drew’s alive…”


	39. Chapter Thirty-Seven

If the proof hadn’t been sitting right between my arms, I wouldn’t have believed it. Drew lived. He _lived_ , and I just… God, he’d been through so much. Drew hadn’t woken yet, but I ran my hands down the side of his body, feeling his head, feeling his hair, feeling his pulse. I’d asked for a miracle, and I’d thought Sanya’s appearance had been it. Sanya might have been necessary for us to win against Guase, but what Kumori did… I glanced to the necromancer.

The real question was what did Kumori do? Did she use necromancy to bring Drew back from the brink of death? From beyond death? Drew wasn’t a zombie in my arms; he lived, he breathed, had a pulse. No drums were beating in the background. If I recalled correctly, it was entirely possible, under the right conditions, to die temporarily, leave a ghost, and then come back. Was what Kumori did the magical equivalent of CPR?

“How?” I managed to get out, looking at the cloaked woman.

“The True Magic is capable of more than just zombies and ghosts. The end goal is to end Death itself,” Kumori said, gesturing at Drew and I. “I was able to save the life of the boy and stem his bleeding, but he will still need medical attention.”

Sanya looked at Drew strangely, a feeling of… well, perhaps it was pity… came from the Knight. It had to be because of the missing arm. “I do not like this, but I can see that he lives.”

“Necromancy,” Molly said, and this time it was less of a curse. In this one case, I could agree. Whatever Kumori did, however she did it, it was nothing less than a miracle. Drew was alive… and… I could feel as he started to stir.

Drew’s eyes blinked open in my arms, and he looked up at me. I met his eyes for half a second, but I looked away as I started to feel the pull of a soulgaze. It was… He was there.

“Fai,” Drew said, and I felt the warmth in his tone. “What? I re—oh, God…”

“Drew, it’s okay… you’re alive… you’re here now…” I spoke soothingly. Pain flared up within him, from his missing arm, and I felt his heartbeat increasing as I held him close. “We’re going to get you somewhere…”

“… Is that Andrew Warren?” I must have missed Murphy approach, but she’d shown up from behind me.

Drew made a noise, halfway between surprise and pain, and I clutched him tighter, making shushing sounds. I tuned out Molly explaining to Murphy what had happened, focusing my attention on Drew. I needed to keep him calm, keep him steady. He seemed to quiet at my voice, and… Fuck, I just needed to keep focused on him. Keeping him safe. Keeping him awake until whatever could come. Someone would come, I was sure of it, and then they could make sure he stayed alive and I could just process what had happened. Focusing on Drew meant I wasn’t focusing on the fact that I killed something wearing his face. It might have already been dead, but it was something wearing his face. I could feel the chunk of me it had torn out…

I don’t know exactly how long I sat there, clutching Drew, with Molly, Murphy and Sanya standing near me. I do know that at some point, Kumori disappeared, almost as if she’d never been there in the first place. Perhaps she went wherever she’d come from. Marcone had come over, talked with Murphy for a bit, and Murphy didn’t exactly seem happy about whatever it was they’d spoken about, but I do remember him kneeling down to look me in the face, as I refused to look him in the eye.

“Miss Carpenter, I’ve arranged for a medical team to arrive for your people. They are discreet, and they have seen things. They will likely suggest taking Mister Warren to a hospital,” Marcone said.

“He’s alive,” I whispered, but I grimaced as I looked at his arm. Drew had passed out again at some point, but he was still breathing. “I’d like to keep him that way, thank you, Mister Marcone.”

“You and your sister will be looked at as well,” Marcone said, and it wasn’t quite an order.

“For once, I agree with Marcone,” Murphy said, and I looked to her. Murphy had a few lacerations on her body, but she looked mostly unharmed, just tired. “Faith, you and your sister went through a lot. You need medical attention as well.”

“Right,” Molly said, placing a hand on my shoulder, which was less a show of solidarity and more a need for support. Judging from my sister’s pupils, I was pretty sure Molly might have had a concussion. Plus, from the way she was holding her arm… at the least, it was strained. I hoped it wasn’t broken again.

“Yeah, okay,” I said, still holding Drew. I turned back to Marcone. “We won’t be stubborn about it. Thank you.”

“No, Miss Carpenter,” Marcone shook his head. “Thank you. What the two of you accomplished today was impressive. You would be welcome to work for me after you finish your education.”

“Or work with Monoc Securities,” one of the larger men said as he came up. “While we are not directly recruiting these days, warriors such as yourselves have the right—”

“Mister Svenson, please,” Marcone said, cutting the man off. “I would rather not lodge a complaint with your employer.”

“Very well, Mister Marcone,” Svenson said.

I shook my head. “Thank you, but, for right now—”

“—we have other plans, Mister Marcone,” Molly said, squeezing my shoulder. “So that would be a no.”

Marcone nodded and climbed to his feet. “Medical should be here shortly. Lieutenant Murphy, Faith and Molly Carpenter, Sir Knight, please give Mister Borden and his pack my regards.”

And then he walked away. I assumed that Marcone probably went back to his car, taking his people with him, and when I next looked up, the only living left in the cemetery were my sister, Murphy, Billy, Georgia, Andi, Kirby, Sanya, Drew and I. At some point the Alphas had returned to their human forms and donned their normal sweats. They looked in worse shape than Murphy, but they were able to move. The cuts that had seemed deep on their wolf forms were shallower as humans, and they looked a couple days old compared to how they’d looked as wolves. It didn’t matter, at least not yet.

The medical team turned up… sometime after that, I suppose. As great as I am at perception, I’m not so great at perceiving time. They took Drew and put him onto a stretcher, saying they’d get him to a medical facility and contact Murphy with the location so she could alert his mother. A hospital would be required to ask questions, they’d reasoned, and with Drew’s situation, these weren’t questions that could reasonably be answered.

They’d looked Molly over too, concussion, strained arm, bruises and some lacerations. Her jacket managed to shield her from the bulk of the damage. They’d recommended she try to stay awake until her pupils returned to normal, at least.

In my case, as they’d looked me over, I hadn’t quite realized the shape I was in. I’d been thrown into a wall, had a ghost do something with my soul, and the previous day I’d had my gut torn into by a ghoul. Apparently, at some point, I’d aggravated the wound on my stomach enough to tear open the stitches that Georgia had done. The cold combined with the bandages I’d already been wearing kept the blood flow down, but if the wound didn’t get stitched shut there was the chance I’d lose a lot more. Luckily, the area had already been numb so the medical team was able to stitch me up right there. As for my other injuries, my ankle was sprained, I’d probably have a good amount of bruising on my back, and I just felt… drained. Sick, still, remembering what I’d felt when Guase had died. Remembering what I’d seen when looking at the thing that wore Drew’s face.

When the medical team had finished, Billy and Georgia had offered their place as a place to recuperate a bit and maybe spend the night. I don’t really recall getting into Georgia’s SUV, other than the damn thing barking something about the door and jars for a few seconds before we closed them after us. Murphy must have had something to do or she’d have taken us herself. Sanya had climbed into the back with us.

*****

We’d been at Billy and Georgia’s apartment for a bit before we’d spoken. Molly and I ended up spending a little of that time around the toilet. God, the night had been so messed up. The shit we’d felt in that cemetery. If we hadn’t been so determined, we probably wouldn’t have been able to force it away, to force it out. It was way too easy to let emotions in, to read them from other people, and then there was the death. Hell’s bells, I’d just… I didn’t want to think about it, dwell on it or anything.

We were sitting in the living room, Molly and I leaning on each other, when Murphy came in, accompanied by Georgia. I didn’t quite bolt to my feet, but I did stand.

“Lieutenant, how is he?” I asked. I hadn’t gone with Drew, primarily at the suggestion of the medical team. I’d wanted to. Oh, Lord, I’d wanted to.

“Stable, or so I was told,” Murphy said. “Marcone’s team seems to be pretty good. They’re confident he’ll pull through.”

I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”

Murphy nodded. “Sit back down, please. We need to talk.”

I did, and Sanya walked into the room, accompanied by Billy at his side. Billy nodded to us, and the two of them walked over to stand near us. I wrapped an arm around Molly, and she did the same to me. We needed to be able to focus.

“Let me first begin by congratulating the two of you,” Murphy said. “I might not know much about magic myself, other than what certain things are, but I do know that the two of you showed a lot of skill tonight against the necromancer.”

Molly and I smiled at that. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, the two of you were pretty cool,” Billy said. “It was almost like watching two Harry’s.”

“He’d have had a lot more fire,” I said, my cheeks flushing.

“Neither of us is really all that good with it,” Molly added.

“You work with what you have,” Sanya said. “Your father would be proud, if he had seen you today.”

“That said,” Murphy interjected. “There were things that could have been handled better. I did ask the two of you to stay out of this investigation.”

“But…” We started, only to be stopped by a raised hand from the diminutive detective.

“No buts. I did ask that,” Murphy said. “You two are minors, and it isn’t your responsibility to protect Chicago from supernatural foes. It isn’t even Harry’s. I took an oath to protect and serve, and I can’t very well protect you if you’re going off on your own to investigate things. This isn’t Scooby Doo.”

“We could have brought Mouse,” I said before I could stop myself, and Murphy just looked flatly at me.

Molly, on the other hand, just slapped me in the back of the head. “Fai... You went right into that circle. If it weren’t for Kumori’s help, you’d probably still be stuck in there. With it doing whatever the heck it was going to do in the first place.”

I nodded, sheepishly. “I suppose. But we needed to help, Lieutenant Murphy. If we hadn’t helped, people in SI would have—”

“Died? Maybe. But they’d have died doing the job they’d sworn an oath to do. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d lost someone in my department,” said Murphy. “But your mistake wasn’t investigating it. You actually did a pretty good job there. Your mistake was not calling me sooner. You should have done so yesterday.”

“We’re sorry,” Molly and I said in unison. “We thought about it, but we didn’t want to talk with you unless we had something you could use.”

Murphy shook her head. “You should have called me earlier than you did, at least after talking with Butters. Still, I am glad that you brought me in when you did.”

I nodded. “We needed you, all of you. Neither Molly nor I are experienced enough to tackle something like this on our own.”

“I don’t think even Harry would,” Molly added. “It just… It was a lot to take in.”

“The two of you were very successful for your age out there,” Sanya said. “Your father would be proud of what you managed to accomplish if perhaps a bit worried for you. It is good that you brought someone like Lieutenant Murphy in on this.”

“Thank you, Sanya,” Molly said.

“It means a lot,” I added.

“I have but one question,” Sanya said. “Do your parents know what it is you were doing tonight?”

I looked to the ground. Daddy was off doing what he did as a Knight, and if he’d gotten Forthill’s message, he might have shown up and known. However, we still hadn’t told Mom, and as far as I knew, Daddy hadn’t found out yet either. Molly squeezed my hand.

“I thought not,” said Sanya. “You should tell Michael. He is a good father; he will understand what it is you faced.”

“And Mom?” Molly asked.

“I am sure that once Michael talks with her, she will understand,” Sanya looked from my sister to me. “If you are honest with your mother, she will understand eventually.”

I looked to Billy, and the werewolf raised his hands. “I’m not getting involved with this. I don’t know your parents.”

“What about yours?” I asked. “Have you told them what you and Georgia can do?”

“Not… exactly, not yet.” Billy shook his head. “We’re going to, soon, but…”

I nodded.

“Nevertheless,” Murphy said. “The two of you did pretty good out there. You just need to learn from the mistakes you made and do better next time.”

“Right,” Molly and I said. “We will.”

“What ever happened to the drummer?” I asked.

“One of the Monoc men knocked him out, and I cuffed him. He’s in a holding cell downtown right now,” said Murphy. “We have enough evidence to charge him for a few murders, and he’s got two warrants from out east. I can’t really share specifics with you, but it’s looking like he’ll be going away for a while.”

“Good,” I said.

“Hey, the two of you can spend the night tonight if you want,” Billy said. “I know Georgia’s going to want to make sure Marcone’s medical team did their work right.”

“Thanks,” Molly said. “Assuming Mom followed Father Forthill’s advice, it probably isn’t a bad idea.”

“I will be going to Saint Mary’s,” Sanya said. “I need to talk with Father Forthill, and I will have reason to talk with Michael when he gets back.”

“I’ll be at home if you need me tonight, but first I need to go down to the station and nail the bastard properly,” said Murphy. “I’ll leave the contact information for where Andrew Warren is staying with you along with someone I think the two of you should talk with. It isn’t easy seeing someone die that close, and the two of you probably need to talk to _someone_ , even if it’s not a professional. I’ll see you around.”

Murphy jotted down a number and a hospital name before leaving the living room. Sanya’s eyes followed her movement, and I heard him whisper something to Billy. I _really_ didn’t want to hear about how small and fierce Murphy was, even if she was an attractive older woman.

“I will be seeing the two of you,” Sanya said, standing. “If you see him before I do, give Michael my regards.”

Billy walked the Knight of the Cross out of the apartment, and Molly and I just… Well, we relaxed on the couch. I’m not entirely sure when we fell asleep, but my dreams that night were not calm. Despite Drew being alive, despite us winning, I still had tumultuous dreams. I couldn’t recall any specifics, but I had flashes of teeth, of the cold energy, and of Guase, her brains splattering on the fresh snow.

I don’t know how long I slept, but I woke the next morning to the smells of breakfast cooking and Georgia checking my bandages. After everything was verified to be in order, we made our way to the table which had one additional occupant at it other than Billy, Georgia, Molly, or myself. Our mentor, Harry Dresden sat at the table, his leather duster folded over the chair behind him.

Even sitting down, Harry was still tall, and he didn’t look to be in great shape. From the way he held his body, the wizard probably had several bruises all over to match the cuts and lacerations on his mostly bare arms. Bandages peeked out from under his T-shirt, indicating the possibility of a broken rib, and he seemed to be nursing his left arm a bit, which wasn’t exactly as bad as it could be. If his right arm had the issue, someone would have to feed him as the functions in his left hand were still fucked. I had no clue how long it would take for them to recover, if they would at all.

“Morning, Grasshopper,” Harry said, nodding to me. Molly already sat at the table, a plate of eggs in front of her. “I’d have woken you up myself, but your sister said to let you sleep. Something of a long day yesterday?”

I looked to Molly, locking eyes with her. He knew already, but Molly hadn’t told him. That much was clear. Which left two people: Murphy and Thomas. Given that someone had to pick him up from the train station and he had to get a ride here somehow, I was leaning toward both of them, actually.

“You could say that,” I said as I sat in a spot at the table, wincing slightly as I settled into place. My stomach still hurt, and I’d have to take the painkiller that they’d given me soon. “It wasn’t very fun.”

“We’ll talk about it more in the car as I take you two home,” Harry said, not quite looking to Billy and Georgia. I felt… maybe a bit of apprehension from him. He didn’t want to talk about it in front of the Alphas as they put food on my plate.

“Okay,” Molly said. “Focus on eating, Fai.”

“Yeah,” I said, looking to the eggs and bacon. They looked pretty appetizing, but I could only bring myself to pick at the food a bit. After a little, I’d finished, and I looked over Harry. “What happened in the Ozarks?”

“Long story,” Harry said. “Little painful, but when I get a call like that, I need to help out.”

“Gnolls tough or something?” I asked.

“You could say that.” Harry looked to my plate, and then looked away. “Billy, Georgia, I’m going to take the two Grasshoppers home for you. Thanks for helping them out.”

“We’d do the same for you,” Billy said as Georgia nodded. “In a heartbeat.”

“And I appreciate that. Come on, you two.” Harry stood and put on his duster, and Molly and I followed him out the door of the apartment. Parked in the street was Harry’s Blue Beetle, which would be a bit cramped with the three of us in it, but we’d made it work in the past. I climbed into the back seat while Molly got the passenger side and Harry was going to be the driver, of course. After he’d started the car and we’d gotten situated, he turned to us. “I want you to tell me everything.”

We nodded. When your mentor makes an order like that, you tend to obey, and we did. Molly and I alternated telling the story, filling in details here and there about things that happened over the past weekend, about what we’d done, what we’d seen. I might have left off things like how I knew about Kemmler, mentioning that Guase had said it, and Molly backed me up. However, I didn’t lie. Then we told him about the previous night, and through it all, Harry had been rather calm. At least up until the point we mentioned Marcone’s involvement.

“Wait… you called Johnny Marcone in on this?” Harry asked sharply. “Stars and stones, are you out of your mind?”

“It was his man who died,” I said, a little taken aback by the venom in his response. I swear I could feel some anger coming off of him, but I needed to defend myself. “He had the people, and he had the resources that we needed in order to deal with Guase. It was the right play.”

“It’s _Marcone_. You know what he does, Faith. You know what he represents. You should have had Murphy bring in SI. They could have handled it,” Harry said.

“And what, have them listen to a pair of sixteen-year-old girls? ‘Oh, there’s a necromancer out there raising zombies? Let’s make sure the pair of minors are protected and can’t get in the way.’ Yeah, it would have worked out great, Harry.” I couldn’t believe him. Surely he could have seen why we needed to call Marcone in. He’d have done the same in our circumstances, wouldn’t he?

“They’d have deferred to Murph, and they’d listen to you. Anyone would have been better than Johnny Marcone.” Harry’s voice had taken on a bit of his anger. Why the fuck was he so angry about it? We did exactly as he would have done, and he had the gall to say we should have done otherwise? “Hell’s bells, kid, this isn’t a game. This is life and death here. You need t—”

“You think I don’t know that?” I asked, nearly snarling it out. How dare he? I mean, life and death? He’s one to fucking talk. Not a game, not life and death. “Who the else was I supposed to call, Harry? SI wasn’t an option because _you weren’t here_. We couldn’t call you because cell phones don’t work for wizards. We tried to call the Wardens and couldn’t get through! Who the fuck else was I supposed to call? Johnny Marcone had made his offer, knowing that we weren’t going to accept it. He still made it. Drew was _dead_ as far as I knew, and Guase needed to suffer, needed to be stopped. And she was. Thanks to Marcone, the person we weren’t supposed to contact.”

“Fai,” Molly said, placing a hand on my shoulder, and I could feel her being upset as well, but somehow she was calmer than me. She wasn’t getting as worked up, but fucking hell, Harry’s hypocrisy pissed me off. _Calm down, sis. Please._

“Tell me, Harry. Who was I supposed to call? Who?”

“Anyone but Johnny Marcone!” Harry yelled. “The man’s a murderer, he’s scum. He’s a criminal, and he relishes in the suffering of others. You could have gotten Mac to give you another number for the Wardens. You could have gotten the number for Ebenezar McCoy from him. You could have had Murph call Jared Kincaid, called your dad, called anyone but him!”

“Murphy was with us, Harry!” I yelled back. “If SI was going to be brought in, wouldn’t she have made the call? Hell, _Thomas_ agreed that Marcone was the right call!”

“Fai! Harry!” Molly snapped out. “Calm down, both of you. This isn’t helping either of you.”

“I don’t believe it,” Harry snapped, ignoring my sister’s call to calm down, which just made things worse on my end. “Thomas and Murph wouldn’t have let you call Marcone in if you’d asked them first. You didn’t, did you?”

“I didn’t have a choice! What number for McCoy? The Wardens didn’t answer! The fucking Hellhound didn’t answer! We didn’t have time to wait on trying other numbers, and the only option we had was Marcone!”

“There’s always another option, Faith! You didn’t need to bring him in! I wouldn’t have done it!”

“Faith…” Molly said warningly. I didn’t care. She knew what was going on as much as I did. Harry was wrong, and he needed to realize that. Marcone was the only option available and he couldn’t fucking accept it.

“You would have. You _did_. He was there on the train with you and Daddy. You helped him out when he was attacked by the Loup-Garou. You’ll call on him again at some point and you’ll pay his price because sometimes there just isn’t an option, Harry!” He’d make the man Baron of Chicago, and he’d do it with a smile on his face because Marcone was the least evil. I’d called Marcone because it was the only call I could make without the Wardens.

“No, I won’t! Every time I did so in the past was a mistake, Faith! One I’d hoped you two would avoid! You made the wrong choice here, and I don’t know how you’re going to have to pay for it!” Harry’s anger started to peak as we pulled into our neighborhood, but I felt a little bit of worry in there as well.

Normally when Harry gets angry, it’s a bit scary, but this time, it only pissed me off further, and my voice went quiet as my rage stirred. “Marcone provided us with medical attention. He provided _Drew_ with medical attention. I know the kind of business he does, Harry. He had the necromancer killed while I held her. Brain exploded out the side of her head.”

“See?” Harry asked with incredulity. “It was a stupid move calling him in, reckless and dangerous. Everything you did over the past weekend was reckless. You’re lucky that you managed to survive at all, Faith, and then what would I be telling your mother?”

“You weren’t there, Harry. If you were, maybe things would have gone different. Maybe Marcone wouldn’t have been needed, and maybe Drew wouldn’t have nearly died. But you weren’t there. You were off in the Ozarks doing whatever it is you were doing with a gnoll invasion. Whatever the fuck a gnoll is. You weren’t here. You don’t get to judge what we did that we thought was necessary because we won. We beat Guase.”

“Not the right way,” Harry said. “Marcone was not the right play, and he never is. He’s always got an angle when it comes to these things, and you played right into his hands.”

“Drew was dead, Harry, and it was my fault. He’s injured and it’s my fault. So I was going to avenge him and take every single bit of possible muscle I could gather up. That meant Marcone. You’d have done the same thing.” As Harry started to open his mouth to respond, I shook my head in disgust. I couldn’t anymore. I couldn’t deal with it. “I’m done, Harry. I appreciate what you’ve taught me, and I really enjoyed the time we had, but you don’t trust my judgment, not with the way you’re treating me. I’m done with this argument, and I’m done with you.”

We’d come to a stop, and we weren’t really all that far from home, so I opened the back door of the Beetle and stepped out.

“Get back in the car, Faith,” Harry said. “We can talk this out.”

“No, we can’t,” I said. Things were too far gone for me to deal with Harry anymore. He didn’t need me. He never did. “Ask Bob about Kemmler, Harry. And tell Sheila hello when you meet her. Have a nice life, Mister Dresden. Moll, I’ll see you at home.”

I slammed the door of the Beetle and I ran. I couldn’t really run all that fast with my injuries, but I ran from the street and through several yards so that I wouldn’t have to look back at my choice. I couldn’t, not with Harry acting that way. I couldn’t stand the holier-than-thou attitude, and I couldn’t just let him dictate what was and wasn’t stupid like that. I couldn’t have him judge one of the only correct decisions I made, the decision that got things _done_ as wrong, especially when he’d do the same thing. I was done with Harry Dresden. I had to be.

*******

When I made it home, the Beetle either had already come and gone or it hadn’t arrived yet. I was leaning toward the latter as I didn’t feel Molly at home already. Maybe she was trying to talk with Harry a bit; I hoped that I hadn’t ruined something for her. I didn’t want to make her choose between me and someone else. That was never a choice I wanted to have her make. Still, I’d made my own choice.

I stepped inside through the back door, and sitting at the Kitchen counter was Mom. She looked up at me when I came inside, and I winced slightly. I didn’t want to deal with this on top of everything.

“Faith Jessica Samantha Carpenter,” Mom said, and I winced again at her using my full Name. Mom might not have had magic, but there was something about the way she said it that just made a chill go down my spine. “Would you care to explain to me why Ellis Warren called me last night in hysterics, worried over her son? And then she called me again later, mentioning that somehow he had lost part of his arm?”

Shit. I should have known that Drew’s mom would call Mom. Mrs. Warren didn’t know anything about what went bump in the night, but she’d been affected through her son. Mrs. Warren and Mom were friends enough that Drew’s situation would be something she’d hear about, and given what Molly and I did, Mom might have been able to piece together that something had happened.

“So this has something to do with why Father Forthill insisted that we all stay inside last night but when I tried to get the two of you inside, I couldn’t reach you at Mister Dresden’s home phone number. What was going on, Faith?”

“A necromancer,” I said, sighing. “A follower of Kemmler tried to do _something_ last night. She’s the one who took Drew, and she’s the one who cut off his arm. We needed to do something about it.”

“You and your sister are minors. You’re my daughters. You shouldn’t _need_ to do anything about something like that,” Mom said. “You should have been at home with me.”

I shook my head. “If we had been, Drew would have been dead… and a bunch more people would have as well, Momma. She wanted to do something—”

“You could have died, Faith!” Mom yelled. “You could have died and I wouldn’t have known because you didn’t tell me where you were! You should have told me yourself what was going on. You and your sister both should have told me!”

“And then what, Momma?” I asked. “Would you have let us go off to fight the good fight? Would you have let us do what we needed to do, put ourselves in harm’s way to prevent the disaster from happening?”

“We won’t know what I would have done because you didn’t give me the choice, Faith!” Mom’s feelings were a nice mix of worry and righteous anger. “Anything could have happened, but you chose to not tell me. You’re my daughter, Faith. I need to know what you’re putting yourself into so I can help you.”

“Momma, I’m not sure you can,” I said, thinking about Drew. He’d been hurt because he had associated with Molly and I during the magic. He’d _saved_ Molly and I from the ghoul zombies after we’d nearly tapped ourselves out in fighting the regular ones, and he got hurt because of it. Guase knew he existed because of it. I didn’t want the same to happen to family.

“I can if you just listen,” Mom said. “You should tell me these things, so I can keep you safe. It isn’t your job to worry about me, Faith. It’s my job to make sure you stay safe, especially from magic.”

I shook my head and I headed out of the kitchen, ignoring Mom’s yells to come back. I stormed up to Molly’s and my room. I wasn’t angry with Mom. I wasn’t. I was angry with myself, for putting everyone in danger. It was my fault that Drew got hurt. Mine, not Molly’s. It was my fault that Cecelia died. It was my fault that Glenn and Jason were in comas. This was making things better? Had I changed anything at all?

I dumped out my backpack onto my bed and I went to my dresser. I began to stuff clothes into it. I didn’t want it to be my fault that Mom or the jawas got hurt. I didn’t want it to be my fault that Molly got hurt, that Harry did. I might have been done with Harry Dresden, but I still didn’t want him hurt because of something I did. This was the only path I knew that could keep those I cared about safe. If I removed myself from the picture, things would be better. I’d tried this when I was eight, and it hadn’t worked because of the fucking ghoul and the fact that I was eight. I was older now, wiser, and I could protect myself from ghouls now.

I needed to keep my family safe. As Molly and I got stronger, we’d both attract things that might cause our family harm. If only one of us was there, it meant that the thing attracted would be less powerful, easier to deal with. Plus, Molly still had Harry.

******

Later that day, I sat on the bed in the Motel 6 I’d checked into using some of the cash I’d had saved up, and a knock came from the room’s door. I’d given a fake name to the front desk, and I doubted anyone would think to look for me here, at least for now. I hadn’t set any magical means of distorting tracking, but if Harry found me, I’d just leave again. I meant what I said when I was done with Dresden, at least for now. The knock came again, a bit more insistent this time along with a warm brush along my senses.

I opened the door, and Molly stepped into the room with me, letting the door shut behind her as she wrapped me into a hug. “Oh, thank God I found you…”

“Wait, Moll, what are you doing here?” I asked, backing away from the hug.

“Please,” Molly said. “Like I’d let you go off on your own again.”

“I’m not going back,” I said. “They’re safer without me. You’re safer without me.”

“Really now, Fai? Safer without you?” Molly scoffed. “Fai, you were really going to leave me on my own? After everything?”

“It seemed like… I mean, you should be safer if I’m not there with you…”

“Safer my butt, Fai. We’re two sides to the same coin. I don’t care what your past life says, you’re my sister. Besides, how were you going to get any sleep tonight?”

I winced and I looked down. I hadn’t thought of that. “You were supposed to stay and train with Harry… Everyone was supposed to be safe.”

“Fai, if it came to a choice between you and him, ever, it’s you every time. And you know what happens when we’re apart too long,” Molly crossed her arms and looked me in the eye. “Did you even think of that?”

I flushed, ashamed. I’d been so busy thinking about the harm that could happen if I stayed, I forgot about what might have happened if I abruptly left Molly behind. She could have… Fuck, what had I almost done to my sister? It didn’t matter if I almost did it to myself, I might have deserved it. Molly didn’t.

“S-Sorry… I didn’t…” I shook my head. “But…”

“Fai, we made a promise, remember?” Molly asked, wrapping me in a hug once more and leaning her head against mine as I made an affirmative sound.

We’d pull through this together. After all, that’s what we’d done in the past, and it’s what we would always do in the future. Always together, forever as one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a bittersweet ending to Book 2, but don’t worry. There’s lighter stuff coming. Though one of the interwoven short stories might be delayed from public release until next year around the 4th of July. Look for Fire Work and Mother’s Insight coming soon.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m actually glad about the response this fic has gotten both here and elsewhere. This is the beginning of the Second Book, which will be longer than the first. I’ll be trying to do a chapter post a day here, and there are 44 chapters for this one, each about this length.


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